After Two Years
by KageNoNeko
Summary: After a two-year long coma, the world has changed noticeably, but the members of the original Host Club have not and for Haruhi, it is what she needs to get use to the world around her.
1. Adjustments

After Two Years

I couldn't help myself. Katty, my sister, was able to get me addicted to Ouran High School Host Club and then I had this little plot bunny that decided to jump around in my head. Mainly this is based on the anime with some references to the manga up to the chapter Mei shows up in. While writing this, I finished reading the manga up to the current scans of the most recent chapters, meaning I was able to get more ideals.

Right now, my other stories are not in very good places. Enough about other things, now for the story.

PS: I didn't go back and change all of the different variants of the names. There is several instances of me using a different romanticize of Kyoya name. So don't flame me about that.

* * *

He was listening to the professor lecture them about the subject at hand, but his mind was on other things. It was on what had happened two years after the last of the original Host Club members had graduated.

Only a week had past since graduation and not much had been going on, but then there was a phone call. Tamaki answered and Hikaru, his voice shaky, told him about how Haruhi had pushed him and Karou away from being hit by a truck, but she was unable to get out-of-the-way. Dropping to his knees, he was unable to respond to Hikaru before hanging up. His father had come by and convinced him to go to the hospital. Upon arriving, he saw the original Host Club trying to comfort Ranka in the waiting room. Only Kyoya came up to him and told him it was very serious.

They had waited around in silence for several hours on end. Then the doctor came to them and took them to a room before telling them the news. Haruhi was currently in a coma and none of the doctors knew if she would be waking up any time soon. Then the doctors told them that they could see her. Hikaru and Karou went first before Mori and Honey. Lastly, Kyoya followed Tamaki and Ranka in the dark hospital room, knowing those two would need him to help cope with the situation. When Tamaki had seen her, he remained emotionless, but on the inside, he was crying. He could not believe what he saw and when he left the hospital an hour later, he finally broke down and cried in his room.

For a few days, Tamaki didn't visit Haruhi, but Kyoya had hunted him down telling him that he should visit Haruhi for her sake. Tamaki had relented and upon entering the hospital room again, he realized it was the right choice. Seeing Ranka, he decided to offer the man dinner and at dinner, Tamaki admitted to Ranka why he had not been visiting. Ranka stopped calling him 'insect' after that and made a point to get to know Tamaki better.

Tamaki sighed as he thought about what had happened since that day he had talked to Ranka. When a year had past since the acident, the doctors had talked to them and said that there was some good signs that she would wake up within the next eighteen months. Then ten months later, two months ago, the doctors had come and told them that she would be waking up within three months. After exactly a month since they heard that news, Ranka had died.

Tamaki sighed again as he rose from his seat at the end of class. He was still in complete disbelief that Ranka had died only a month ago and as he walked out of the classroom, his cell phone rang. He looked at the caller id and saw it was Kyouya, making his heart leap. Every time that he had called this week, he had told Tamaki good news every single day, but it was yesterday when Kyouya called during a thunderstorm that Tamaki found more joy. Kyouya had left a message saying that the doctors had to give Haruhi some medicine because after the first clap of thunder, she reacted to it, even though she was not awake. When Tamaki had called back, Kyouya explained in more details and Tamaki was starting to smile. Now, Kyouya was calling again and Tamaki felt the need to answer. "What is it, Kyouya?"

"She will be waking up some time after your last class today," Kyouya said.

"Are they sure?!"

"Yes, they are, Tamaki. The medicine from yesterday has yet to fully wear off, but she is showing signs that when the medicine wares off, she will wake up."

"I will leave my last class early. What about the others?"

"Honey and Mori will not be able to get here until later. The twins will be able to get here sooner than Honey and Mori, but not before you. You do have Ranka's letter with, don't you?"

"Yes, I do. I should let you go."

"See you later, Tamaki."

"See you later, Kyouya," said Tamaki before ending the call and walking towards his next class knowing that once classes were done, he would have something good to look forward to.

* * *

Someone was holding her hand. The last thing she remembered was the horrified faces of the twins and being hit by a truck. Although she feared what she might see, she knew that whoever was holding her hand would probably want to know that she was okay. Opening her eyes and turning her head towards the person who was holding her hand, she saw a young man with blond hair that was hiding his eyes. "Senpai?"

He looked up with his violet eyes and smiled. "Yes, Haruhi."

"Where are Hikaru and Kaoru?"

"They will be getting here later. Kyouya had left to get something to eat and will be back soon. Honey and Mori will arrive later than the twins. I have been here since my last class let out," said Tamaki.

"At least, they are all right," said Haruhi softly. "Tell me about what has been happening."

"It will be very long since it's been two years," said Tamaki, saying the last part a little more quietly.

"Two years?"

"Yes."

"Then what has been going on with you."

Tamaki nodded and began to talk about what has happened with him in the past two years. He began to tell how he was finally able to enter the main Souh mansion, but still live in the 2nd, and his grandmother was finally relenting, only because his father was becoming more powerful in the family. In amidst of telling about his classes, Kyouya returned and pushed his glasses back up before going to stand in a corner of the room to listen to Tamaki continue speaking.

"Shouldn't you go and tell someone she is awake, Tamaki?" Kyouya asked after Tamaki had finished.

"Yes, I should, but I was waiting for you to return," said Tamaki before getting up, letting go of Haruhi's hand, and leaving the room.

"You probably noticed that he is somewhat different, but he still is Tamaki," said Kyoya as he took the seat that Tamaki had vacated. "I called the twins before I came up here and they will be here within forty minutes. Mori and Hunny have classes that end later and will be the last ones to arrive. As for my classes, I take most of them online and the few regular classes I take are in the morning."

Silence settled in the room. "How long have you been here?" Haruhi asked breaking the silence.

"I've been here since my class let out at eleven this morning. Tamaki has been here since a little after four and currently it is five-forty," said Kyoya taking out a notebook and began looking at it.

"You've been here since _eleven_?!"

"Not quite since eleven, more like ten after eleven," said Kyoya looking up from his notebook. "Everyone from the Host Club made the point of trying to visit you at least once a week. Me and Tamaki just happens to visit you more often because we are closer and not as busy. And usually I don't stay this long, but because the doctors said you were going to wake up sometime today, I decided to stay." As he was about to look back to his notebook, he noticed Tamaki was back with one of the doctors. "I think me and Tamaki will take our leave so we can greet the twins."

Kyoya rose from the chair and went to Tamaki before the two of them left Haruhi with the doctor.

* * *

When Tamaki and Kyoya returned, they had the twins, Honey, and Mori with them. As soon as the twins entered the room, they were apologizing to Haruhi about not being careful, but Haruhi brushed it off, saying it was nothing. Once everyone had told what had happened in the past two years, everyone grew quite and no one spoke for a few minutes. "Another thing also happened during the past two years," said Tamaki with the same sadness that he had displayed when he declared the dissolution of the Host Club.

"What?" Haruhi asked as the air grew thick with gloom.

"Your father died," said Tamaki pulling out Ranka's letter and giving it to Haruhi, "and he left this for you to read."

Haruhi took the letter and unfolded and began to read it. It read:

_To my dear little girl,_

_I am sorry that I can't be there, but I hope that your high school friends are there with you. I asked them to be with you because they have showed me that they do care for you and would do nothing to hurt you. I chose Kyoya and Tamaki to make the decisions for you. Let them help you. They do really care about you. Love, Daddy._

Once she finished with the letter, it was obvious to the others that she was holding back her tears. Tamaki went to her side, putting an arm around her. "We were with him during his final days," said Kyoya. "He really did express to us that he wanted us to look after you and make sure you were happy."

"Milord spent a lot of time with you father," said Kaoru. "He was the only one who was able to get your father to stop feeling sorry for himself."

For the rest of the time, they all focused on trying to make Haruhi less sad and when they left, they all promised to come visit her tomorrow since it was a Saturday and no classes. The last ones to leave were Tamaki and Kyoya, but Kyoya had the most to say. "If you find out when they are going to release you, tell me and I will make sure to get you a cell phone," said Kyoya. "And don't worry about having to pay me back because I understand your situation. Tamaki, don't you have something else to tell her?"

"My father after hearing about your situation decided to give you the guest house for you to stay in as long as you like."

"He really doesn't have to do all of that. Kyoya, you really don't have to go through the trouble of getting me a cell phone," Haruhi said.

"You are not going to be able to convince us otherwise," Kyoya responded. "We are doing this because you've made our lives a little more interesting."

Before Haruhi could even respond, the two co-founders of the host club wished her good night and left her alone for the second time that night.

* * *

A week had past since Haruhi had awakened from her coma and Tamaki was completely overjoyed by the fact that she was being released today. So overjoyed that he did not pick up much of the lecture of his classes. When he last class let out, he went to meet up with Kyoya and they rode in Kyoya's limo to the hospital to pick up Haruhi. When Tamaki and Kyoya went into the hospital, they found Haruhi was waiting for them. "I see Renge did come by earlier," said Kyoya as he cast an eye at Haruhi, who was wearing a simple dress.

"She only dropped off my clothes before saying she had to leave," said Haruhi.

"She must have been running late. Renge was making sure that our surprise for you will be ready when we get there," said Kyoya. "We should get going."

The two young gentlemen lead Haruhi to the limo and helped her in. Soon, they were driving off to the second Suoh's mansion. For most of the way, it was silent until Kyoya looked up to see Haruhi was asleep. "Looks like she fell asleep," said Kyoya quietly. "I don't think we should wake her up, given what she's been through."

"I agree Kyoya," said Tamaki quietly. "I will carry her inside if she is not awake when she arrives."

Kyoya nodded and began to drift back to whatever he was thinking about.

* * *

Haruhi opened her eyes and saw she was in a bedroom that was lavishly decorated. Guessing that it probably belong to one of the Host Club members, she got up and walked towards the door. She opened the door and tried to figure out where everyone was when a maid passed by her and stopped. "Everyone is downstairs. If you need any help at all, just ask," said the maid before bowing and then continuing on her way.

_So, they are downstairs_, thought Haruhi. It was going to be a very interesting day.

* * *

Tamaki looked up at the clock and he was somewhat worried. Casting his eyes at Kyoya, he saw Kyoya nod before he left the room to see if Haruhi was okay. It never had been this long for her to wake up from her naps. As he was about to head across the entrance way, he saw Haruhi sitting on the staircase, staring into space. He quietly went up the stairs and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Do you want me to carry you at least down these steps?" He asked being careful.

When she didn't answer, he sat down next to her and wait for her answer. After a few minutes had past, he decided to place his hand on her shoulder. "What is it?" She asked quietly.

"I was wondering if you want me to carry you down these steps," Tamaki replied.

"Yes."

Tamaki stood and lifted her up before he started to walk down the stairs. "The guest house doesn't have any stairs," he said as he let her down, making sure she was able to stand before letting go. "We should get moving or they will send out a search party."

She nodded and Tamaki lead the way to the room that he had left before setting off to find her. Upon entering the room, everyone present turned to look at the two that had entered. "We were wondering if you were not going to show," said Kyoya. "Besides Mori and Honey can't stay as late as the rest of us."

"We have to have desert with you, Haruhi, before we leave," said Honey.

At that moment, everyone sat down at the dinner table and began to talk. Out all of them, Renge was the most talkative because she had been quite busy during the past week. As she was talking, Haruhi smiled at the memory of when Renge learned that she was a girl and it was all because Kyoya had said she was denser than Tamaki. "Haru-chan, are you alright?" Honey asked with concern in his eyes.

"I was only thinking about a memory," said Haruhi noticing that there was food on the table. "I guess I probably spaced out."

"If you say so," said Honey before he started to fill his plate.

Seeing this, Haruhi did the same and began to eat, enjoying every bite.

* * *

After they had eaten and had desert (cake, of course), they said goodbye to Mori and Honey, who told Haruhi that she would be surprise by what she would find in the guest house. A half-hour later, the twins had to leave and then only Kyoya and Renge remained. Renge was talking to Haruhi, but Haruhi was half listening because the night had tired her out. When it had been an hour since the twins left, Renge and Kyoya were getting ready to leave, but before they left, Kyoya gave her the cell phone that he had gotten her. Then it was just her and Tamaki. He picked her up without asking and took her upstairs to the room she had awoken in earlier. "I will wake you up before I go downstairs in the morning," said Tamaki. "Do you need anything?"

"I don't think so," said Haruhi as she walked over to the bed and laid down on it.

"Good night then," said Tamaki as he turned off the lights and left the room, closing the door behind him.

* * *

When he had walked through the door after coming back from his last class of the day, Shima greeted him and lead him to the sitting room. On the couch, Haruhi laid sleeping. Tamaki asked Shima when she had fallen asleep and upon hearing the answer, he responded softly, "I will wait for her to wake up. She should be waking up soon."

Shima left after reminding him to be considerate. Really she didn't need to remind him, he knew he needed to be considerate, if he was going to have a chance to see if she felt the same way. Tamaki had realized his true feelings for Haruhi when two years ago, he had first seen her in a coma. Only Ranka knew about his feelings and how they had kept him away from her before Kyoya convinced him that it was important. As he walked over to her, he still couldn't believe that it had been only a week since she had woken from her coma.

Tamaki crouched down to the floor in front of the couch and debated with himself if he should say anything. Deciding upon what to do, he placed a hand on her shoulder and then spoke softly, "Would you like me to play something on the piano?"

At first, she didn't respond, but as soon as he saw her head nodded yes, he scurried towards the piano and uncovered the keys. Playing a few cords, he thought about what song he should play and then it came to him. It was a fairly recent song and he had played it several times, but not enough to have it in his memory. The sheet music for it was lying on the piano for he had been playing it very recently, in fact, he was playing it when he was worrying about Haruhi. As e looked through the music, he realized that he probably could try play it without the sheet music. Laying the sheet music down, he turned and looked at the keys before he began to play.

As he put his heart into playing, he became absorbed in the music and allowed his mind to drift to his final year at Ouran. That final year was very interesting. They gained a few new hosts from the first year students. The twins teasing him and Haruhi admitting she enjoyed being part of the host club, but it was not the same because Mori and Honey had left them to move on with life. As he reached the end of the song, he pulled himself out of his reverie. "I've never heard you play that song before, senpai," said Haruhi.

"It is a fairly recent song," said Tamaki as he raised up from the piano bench. "Today was the first day, I've actually played it without sheet music in front of me. Do you think you can walk far?"

"I don't know," she responded.

"Then we will walk to the guest house," said Tamaki. "We should leave now, so you have plenty of time to look around."

* * *

It was about an hour later and Tamaki and Haruhi were standing in front of the guest house. Tamaki opened the door and lead her in before taking a seat on a couch in front of a TV in a room off to the side of entrance way. He watched as she looked around with a stun look. After a few minutes, she went to another room and Tamaki sighed. If he was going to make dinner for her, he probably should start now.

Tamaki rose from the couch and walked towards the kitchen. Looking around the kitchen upon arriving there, he found everything was as how he had asked Renge to arrange it. Then he went to work gathering the ingredients he needed. He was sure that he would surprise her because the last time she had seen him cook anything, it was a disaster. This time he knew how to cook because he had been asking his chefs for advice as soon as he learned that she would be waking up. Soon, the smell of the stew that he had prepared was beginning to float upon the air as it approached being done.

Once the stew was done, he turned off the burners and decided to look for Haruhi while the stew cooled. Leaving the kitchen, he started to look through each of the rooms and didn't find her until he entered one of the two bedrooms. She was lying on the bed with her back to the door and once he walked to the other side of the bed, he noticed that she had the same look that she had when he had found her last night on the staircase. "I've made dinner," he said. "Do you need my help?"

"Senpai, you can do what you did last night," she replied.

Inside, Tamaki was leaping for joy, but he kept it locked in himself as he picked her and carried her to the dinning room. When he let her down, he waited until she had taken a seat before he left and returned with the stew. He poured her a bowl before he filled a bowl for himself. Upon taking a seat, he noticed she was just staring at the stew and realized why. "I've been cooking for almost a year. Actually, this particular stew is one that I made for your father one time and he liked it."

That was all it took for her to try the stew and once he saw that, he began to eat himself. By time they had finished, there was little left of the stew. Tamaki put what was left in the fridge and then went to the room with the TV in it. Haruhi was sitting on the couch and he took a seat next to her. "Will you will be staying much longer, senpai?"

"I probably won't be staying much longer because I have things I need to do tomorrow. Dad is wanting me to learn the ropes, but if you need anything, call. If I can't do it, Kyoya could do it, but if he can't he will call upon some of the other hosts."

"Thank you."

"It is nothing," said Tamaki as he stood up. "I will go get the gifts everyone left you."

Tamaki disappeared for awhile and then returned with his arms full with three wrapped presents and laid them carefully on the floor. "These are all for me?"

"Yes. Everyone decided that you deserved these gifts," said Tamaki before handing an envelope to Haruhi. "This is from Mori and Honey."

Haruhi opened the envelope and revealed a gift card for a clothing store. From Hikaru, a pair of headphones. From Karou, a nice laptop. From Renge, a photo album with pictures from all the misadventures the club had went through. Looking through the album made her laugh causing Tamaki to look over her shoulder, muttering something about Kyoya helping. "If you see them before I do, please do tell them I appreciated the gifts."

"I probably will see Kyoya and Renge before you do. I will leave the key to the door on the table in the kitchen. I'll keep the only other key with me," said Tamaki before he left to put the key in the spot he spoke of. Then he returned. "If you don't see me tomorrow, I will see you Sunday." He waved before leaving the room and exiting the guest house, locking the door.

Haruhi moved her gifts somewhere safe and then went to the bedroom she had discovered was hers because of an empty box with her name on it. Upon entering the bedroom, she went to the dresser and went through the drawers. Surprised, she found that all of her clothes she had from two years ago was still in good shape. Finding her pajamas, she changed into them before looking in the last drawer she had yet to look in.

When she finally looked in that last drawer, Haruhi discovered a blanket that her father had given her one Christmas. It was a deep forest green color and was perfect for the cold winters. Just seeing it reminded her of her father and she just clutched it close to her before she began to cry. It wasn't much longer before she had cried herself asleep on the floor.

* * *

Tamaki was watching his father manage the family business, but he sighed. He was worried about Haruhi. "Tamaki, what is the matter?" Mr. Suoh asked.

"I am worried about her."

"Son, I would give her some time alone. Everything that has happened to her has not soaked in. Besides she needs time to take in the changes and decide what she wants to do."

"I guess you are right. I did say that I might see her today or tomorrow before I left."

"Don't try to force yourself upon her. Besides I would give her one day to be by herself without any of her friends or other people around."

"I will keep worrying about her today," said Tamaki looking away from his father.

"That shows how much you care for her," said Mr. Suoh as he stood up and walked over to his son before leaning and whispering in his ear. "I understand this is tough for you, but I was in your position with your mother and found that acting upon worries results in trouble."

"I understand dad."

"Now that I helped eased your mind, let's talk business..."

* * *

Haruhi was turning on the laptop she had received. As it was booting up, she went to the fridge and pulled out the rest of the stew from last night. When she returned to the table, the laptop was fully booted and she placed her bowl down, trying to decide what to do first. Deciding to set up an email account, she opened up the web browser and sighed up for a free email service, but realized that she didn't know anyone's email addresses. With nothing else to do, she began to eat the stew and realized that she like it, something she didn't notice last night. By time she was done eating, the rest of the stew was gone and she picked up the laptop before going to the room that had the TV in it.

Sitting on the couch, she tried to get comfortable, but was finding her back was still aching from sleeping on the floor even though she had taken a bath. Then she found a position that did not make her back ache and she began to surf the web for a good hour. Bored with that, she turned off the laptop and began to wonder around the house for the rest of the afternoon. The rest of the day went by quickly and she put on her pajamas before getting into bed. She fell asleep clutching the forest green blanket before her cell phone buzzed for a text message.

* * *

When Haruhi awoke the next morning, she checked her cell phone for no apparent reason and found a text message from Tamaki stating that he was coming to take her out for lunch. Looking at the alarm clock, she saw it almost nine, not leaving her much time to get ready. By the time she was ready, it was eleven and she decided take out her laptop to browse the web. She was completely absorbed in what she was doing that she didn't hear the front door opening or the light footsteps that was approaching her. So when a hand touched her shoulder, she jumped causing the chair she was sitting in to fall back with her and knocking whoever had touched her.

"If I knew I would've startled you, I wouldn't have done it," said Tamaki from behind her. "I have reservations for us at the place I am taking you to."

"How fancy is this restaurant?" Haruhi asked as she got up and offered a hand to Tamaki.

"It's a popular restaurant that opened a year and a half ago," said Tamaki took her hand and then stood up. "It is not fancy, but you will find some people of wealth will go there. I haven't ran into anyone I know there yet and I don't think I will. Besides I've gotten to know the chef and he has been the only one who has talked to me while I am there."

"What time is the reservations for?"

Tamaki looked at the clock and the clock read twelve. "Twelve forty. We don't have much time," said Tamaki as he wrapped his hand around Haruhi's wrist.

"First I need to shut off my laptop."

"I guess that would be helpful," said Tamaki.

* * *

Tamaki and Haruhi was able to make it to the restaurant in time and they were shown to a table that was not in sight of too many others. Once their waiter had brought their drinks, he was whispering to Tamaki about something before Tamaki went to the waiter to the chef's office. Upon entering the chef's office, the chef looked up. "It's my regular, Tamaki!" The chef stated with glee.

"It is nice that you recognize me, chef Franc," Tamaki greeted.

"I am quite curious about who you brought with you," said Franc.

"She is the one that I was telling you about having been in a coma for two years."

"O-o-lalala. So, she's the one you talked about so much. Do you have anything in mind for her, moi ami?"

"I do because I don't want us to talk about the food all night. Haruhi tends to be quite independent and I am kinda of worry about her, but I want to figure out if she has changed any."

"You're afraid that she has changed. I am all ears about what you want," said Franc.

* * *

After Tamaki had listed off his dinner plans to chef Franc, he went back to the table and began casually to talk to Haruhi, which started to center around how he and chef Franc started to talk to each other. Then conversation began to turn towards to more future topics when Haruhi had asked Tamaki about his future plans regarding school. "I am glad that you asked about that. When the new term starts in three months, I will be studying abroad in America," said Tamaki. "And let me turn the tables, and what are your future plans?"

Haruhi looked down at the table and Tamaki winced slightly knowing that probably wasn't the best way to ask. "I haven't thought about the future much. I don't want to even think about how hard it will to be get into a college...." She trailed off.

_So that's her worries_, thought Tamaki. "My father may be able to help to a degree, but there are somethings that he will not be able to help with. If I knew you haven't thought about it, I would have probably never asked about it," said Tamaki as he paused to see Haruhi's reaction, but didn't see one. "So how did yesterday go?"

"Fine except for being sore as a result of sleeping on the floor."

"Then did you finish the stew?"

"Yes. I would like it if you made it again," said Haruhi as she looked up from the table.

Before Tamaki was able to speak again, he saw chef Franc and their waiter coming with their food. "All for my best customer, I will come out a personally serve my food," said chef Franc.

"Haruhi, this is the chef of this restaurant, Franc," said Tamaki. "We've struck up a friendship."

"It is a pleasure to meet you," said Franc to Haruhi. "Tamaki has talked much about you. Now, I should not postpone your meal any longer."

Franc turned towards the waiter and took two plates of food before sitting one before Tamaki and Haruhi. He bowed and then he and the waiter took their leave. "He's nothing like our friends," said Haruhi.

"That is true. Franc was born in France and came here to start his restaurant," said Tamaki.

"For what reasons?"

"That I have no clue. It may have something to do with what happened back in France. Now, we should eat before this good food becomes cold."

* * *

After lunch, Tamaki took Haruhi to a nearby park to look at the scenery. They talked a little about the changes that the city had under went within the past years before talk shifted back to the past and the good days of the Host Club. There was a few laughs between the two, but nothing serious happened. An hour had past and Tamaki looked up to the sky to see a few dark clouds. Frowning, he knew that it would probably be best for them to leave and get back before the storm's arrival, but he couldn't remember hearing about the potential for storms today. "Why are you frowning?" Haruhi asked.

"I thought I heard there was no chances for any storms today, but there are some clouds, dark heavy clouds, in the distance. Want to leave so we don't end up outside when it starts raining?" Tamaki asked.

Haruhi only nodded and Tamaki called his driver. By the time they were riding back, the sky had darkened considerably. Glancing to Haruhi, Tamaki couldn't help to notice that worry had appeared on her features. He sighed, deciding to let her come to him, if she need him to comfort her. They remained silent for the rest of the way and when they walked to the guest house, they were able to talk, but it was not lighthearted as it had been earlier. As soon as they walked through the door, they went to the kitchen and Tamaki went ahead to make tea while Haruhi went to boot up her computer that was still on the table.

When the tea was done, Tamaki poured two glasses and walked over to the table before sitting down next to Haruhi. He looked over to watch what Haruhi was doing and came up with a very interesting ideal. After looking at the clock, he grinned and knew his ideal would work. "Want to mess with the twins and Kyoya?"

Haruhi thought about it, but thought it might be fun to mess with those three. "What exactly are you talking about?"

"The twins and Kyoya are online at this time to chat. I was thinking of signing into the chat program under my user name, but the both of us will type," said Tamaki.

"That should be fun," Haruhi replied before pushing the laptop to be in between to them.

Within a few minutes, Tamaki had brought up the chat room that little_devil_typeH, little_devil_typeK, and cool_type were in. The first message that had popped up was "host_king has signed in". The conversation ran like this:

little_devil_typeK: Milord, how unexpected of you to be on.

little_devil_typeH: We thought you would be busy with everything.

host_king (Haruhi): How so?

cool_type: Tamaki would not phrase a question quite like that.

host_king (Haruhi): ....

little_devil_typeK: Then is milord nearby...

little_devil_typeH: Haruhi.

host_king (Haruhi): He is. This was no fun since you figured out everything out.

cool_type: So what did you two have up your sleeves?

host_king (Haruhi): ....

cool_type: Not telling then. I could blackmail both of you.

host_king (Tamaki): I will tell. We were going to fool around with you three.

little_devil_typeH: I not going to stick around for this. What about you Karou?

little_devil_typeK: Same here.

little_devil_typeH and little_devil_typeK have signed out.

cool_type: Have a good day, Tamaki, Haruhi.

cool_type has signed out.

"That was not what I expected," said Tamaki as he signed out of the chat room.

"Kyoya is still Kyoya," said Haruhi before finishing off her glass of tea.

"He still is the shadow king we all knew back in the day," said Tamaki before hard loud crash of thunder was heard.

Haruhi jumped in her chair and quietly slid off of it before going under the table without a sound. Tamaki decided to watch for the moment to see what she wanted him to do. After a few minutes had passed, another crash of thunder was heard and Haruhi jumped again. "S-senpai," Haruhi said trembling.

Tamaki rose from his chair and then crawled under the table, putting his right arm around Haruhi. "I will stay with you until this storm passes," said Tamaki softly. "I will stay here next to you until this storm passes or I have to make dinner."

Another clash of thunder came to their ears causing Haruhi to wrap her arms around Tamaki, laying her forehead against his side. Each time a clash of thunder was heard, Haruhi would grip Tamaki harder. The afternoon had past slowly with them together and soon early evening came, but the thunder had slowed, not stopped. Looking at the clock, Tamaki knew that it was time for him to make dinner, if he wanted it before he became hungry. "Are you getting hungry?" He asked.

"Yes," Haruhi said, still with her arms around Tamaki.

"You will need to let go of me, if you want me to make something to eat." She loosened her grip slightly. "I will get the headphones that Hikaru gave you. Where did you put them?"

* * *

When she opened her eyes tiredly, Haruhi did not recall falling asleep and she still had the headphones that Tamaki had put on her. As she laid there on her side with her back facing the door, she began to smell something that made her realize that she was starving. As she was debating whether to get up and find the source of the appetizing smell, she heard footsteps and someone called her name. It was Tamaki and she didn't answer. "Are you hungry?" Tamaki asked.

"Yes," Haruhi said, finding her voice.

"Then I shall bring you some food to you," said Tamaki before starting to walk away.

"You don't have to do that," Haruhi said as she sat up in the bed.

"I was thinking you were too tired to get up," said Tamaki with a grin. "I did call Kyoya and he said he could lend a hand if you want to continue your education."

"He said that?"

"Yes. He doesn't think you will have much difficulty, but mentioned that you will need to study all-year-round, if you don't want to spend too many years in school. Now let's eat. I made something that is French."

She just nodded and he left to go set the table. She began to think about it. If she wanted to be a lawyer, starting now would be for the best and if she did work hard enough, she could finish schooling in a reasonable amount of time. Deciding what she wanted to do could wait for morning because right now she wanted to have food.

* * *

The week flew and it was Saturday morning. Haruhi woke up to the host club making her breakfast, begging her to let them sleepover for the night. Without some of the reluctance that she would've had in the past, she agreed as long they didn't do anything that she didn't want to do. Everyone said yes except for Mori who nodded yes.

After they finished breakfast, they dragged her off to an amusement park and did several rides. As soon as lunch rolled around, the twins with Mori and Hunny saved a table for them while Tamaki, Haruhi, and Kyoya went to order their food and bring it back. When they received their food, they ate in silence, but upon finishing, Haruhi turned towards Kyoya. "So what is Renge up to, Kyoya?" Haruhi asked.

Looking at Haruhi, Kyoya smiled. "She couldn't join us today, but will be bringing us lunch tomorrow," said the Shadow King as he pushed his glasses back into place. "Why do you ask?"

"I was just wondering," said Haruhi before taking a ship of her drink.

* * *

Once it became late afternoon, they left the amusement park and went back to the guest house. While Tamaki took on the task of making dinner, everyone else went to the living room and played a board game that Hunny pulled out from amidst his belongings that he had brought. They had went for several turns until dinner was ready.

After dinner, they had finished their game before deciding to watch a movie. The twins picked the movie and put it in the DVD player. An hour and a half later, the movie was done and everyone did not feel like watching another movie, deciding to converse about general topics instead. As the clock ticked closer to ten, everyone was getting ready for bed: taking turns in the bathroom and setting up the location they decided to sleep in. Kyoya was setting up his place on the couch while Hikaru and Kaoru were unrolling their sleeping bags right next to each other in the middle of the room. In another part of the room, Hunny and Mori were laying out their sleeping bags, a few feet away from each other. Tamaki had laid claim on the other bedroom and was watching everyone else set up their sleeping areas. He was staring off into space when Haruhi tapped him on the shoulder. Turning around, he looked at her with a look that asked 'What do you want?' "I want to show you something, senpai," said Haruhi before walking back to her room.

Tamaki looked at Kyoya, who nodded, before he went to follow Haruhi into to her room. While watching her go through a drawer, he sat down next to her, waiting to see what she wanted to show him. When he saw her pull out a recipe book, he knew what she wanted to show him. She flipped through the pages until she stopped at a page and handed the book to Tamaki. Looking at the recipe before him, Tamaki realized what it meant to Haruhi. According to Ranka, it was the first recipe that Haruhi had cooked with her mother and since her mother had died, she had never cooked it again. "Do you want me to make this for breakfast in the morning?" He asked looking at Haruhi, who was looking down. Realizing the situation, he placed his arm around her shoulders. "You can cry."

Without further commanding from Tamaki, she began to cry somewhat silently. Tamaki, unsure what to do, allowed himself to rub her back and spoke words to comfort her. Then she leaned against him and laid her head on his shoulder, but continued to cry. Tamaki stopped rubbing her back to replace his around her shoulders, but did not stop speaking softly. As the minutes past by, her crying started to subside and she fell asleep. Noticing this, Tamaki scooped her up and placed her on the bed before tucking her in. Smiling, he picked up the recipe book and then walked outside to where Kyoya and the rest of the host club was standing, closing the door behind him.

"So," Kyoya started, "why was she crying, Tamaki?"

"This recipe she showed me," Tamaki started with downcast eyes, "he told me that it was the first one she cooked with her mother and hasn't cooked it since her mother died. I told her she could cry."

"Tomorrow, we should let her know that we will be there for her," said Kyoya. "I will call Renge to tell her about what is going on, but Tamaki, there is one other thing that I would like to say to you."

"What is it, Kyoya?"

"I think you did quite well in comforting her. I have a feeling that there was something else that was motivating you to comfort her," said Kyoya as Tamaki's whole face became a red as a tomato for the first time since that day near the start of his and Kyoya's second year in high school (AN: You better know that I mean episode one).

"W-w-w-what to do you mean by that, K-k-kyoya?" Tamaki stuttered.

"Tama-chan needs to confess," said Hunny as Tamaki remained with a red face.

"That explains things," said Kyoya with a grin. "The reason why for those first few days two years back you didn't visit her was because you realized your feelings for her."

Tamaki did not say anything, but his eyes showed that what Kyoya had said was the truth. "Milord, make her happy for all of us," said Kaoru.

"Make her happy," said Hikaru as Tamaki's face slowly lost the red tint.

"Then you shall help me make this recipe," said Tamaki as he thrust the recipe book towards Kyoya.

"How can we help when you're the only one with decent cooking skills?" Kyoya asked.

"You can make sure the ingredients are rounded up and watch time for me," said Tamaki.

"Then we should get to bed, so we can get up early," said Kyoya.

The other host club members all nodded yes before they all went to bed.

* * *

Haruhi opened her eyes and was surprised that she was in bed. Smiling at the kindness Tamaki had displayed, she continued to lay in bed until the smell of food made her want to get up and eat. First she got dress and as soon as she stepped into the hallway, she saw out of the corner of her eye some orange hair disappearing around a corner. Curious about what one of the twins was up to, she decided to go find the twin that she saw. Walking towards the corner she saw the twin disappeared around, she did not notice the other twin, the one that did not darted around a corner, sneaking up on her; until a hand landed lightly on her shoulder. Slightly spooked, she turned to see Kaoru with a devilish grin. "What are you two up to?" She asked with a hint of potential anger.

"You'll have to wait and see," replied Kaoru as he grabbed Haruhi's hand and began to lead her to the room with the TV in it.

When they entered the room, Hikaru was waiting for them. Behind him, the TV was on and hooked up to a GameCube. It had Super Smash Brothers Mellee. "We thought you might like to play a couple of rounds with us since breakfast is not finished," said Hikaru with mischievous grin before he and his twin pulled Haruhi towards the couch, giving her one of the three controllers.

So that was how Haruhi discovered she had a natural talent in Smash Brothers.

* * *

Just as Tamaki was putting the finishing touches, the twins entered with some grumbling that accompanied an event that lead to a failed plan. "What happened?" Kyoya asked as he pushed his glasses back into place.

"We were beaten in Super Smash Brother Melee," the twins said in unison.

"By Haruhi?" Kyoya asked and received nods as an answer. "Are you absolutely sure she has never played any video games?"

"We are," said Kaoru.

"It's done," said Tamaki before any more conversation could continue.

"Where will we be eating at?" Hikaru asked.

"We can't all fit at the table. So, gentlemen, I propose to eat in the living room!" Tamaki declared.

"So, how is this going to work out?" Hikaru asked.

"One of us will have to carry a plate for Haruhi and I wish to be the one to do so," said Kyoya before looking at the twins. "One of you should get Mori and Hunny to come in from outside so they can eat."

The twins nodded and Hikaru lefted to go get Mori and Hunny. When Hikaru returned with Mori and Hunny, Tamaki had enough plates with food on them for everyone in the small house. Kyoya took his plate and Haruhi's before going to the living room. Soon everyone else followed with their plates.

* * *

It was late morning and everyone was watching Haruhi and Tamaki play Super Smash Brothers. It was quite interesting how everything had played out earlier. Haruhi had been surprised by breakfast and had eatten happily. Then after they had eaten, they all decided they wanted to play Super Smash Brothers and that was they had been doing since then. As it approached the time that Renge was coming with lunch, Kyoya left to wait for her while everyone continued to watch Haruhi and Tamaki play the game.

When Renge came, Kyoya helped her with the food for lunch before going to the living room and calling everyone to come to the kitchen to get their food. After eatting, the boys (Tamaki was mostly forced into it) were going to clean the kitchen up while leaving Renge and Haruhi alone. It was Renge that was doing most of the talking, but this time Haruhi was interested when she began to talk about Kyoya. When Renge began to talk about Kyoya, Haruhi noticed that Renge words confirmed what she had been seeing between Renge and Kyoya. Maybe, she made a mental note, she should ask the others when Kyoya was not around to give her the direct answer about what was going on between Kyoya and Renge. When everyone was about ready to leave, the host club decided to dogpile Haruhi and Renge tooked a picture of them all together.

As they were saying their goodbyes, Haruhi told them that she did want to continue her education and continue to persue her dream of becoming a lawyer. The twins agreed to help her study for college tests and new history that will appear on those tests. Kyoya volunteered to pull some strings in her favor so she could start when the next term starts as long as she fulfilled her end. When they left, Tamaka stayed behind for a few minutes and Haruhi was able to ask her question about Kyoya and Renge. "They are way too obvious," said Tamak. "They have yet to say that they are actually dating."

"I never would've thought those two would start to like each other," said Haruhi.

"Do you want me to make you anything for dinner?" Tamaki asked.

"No, I think I should be fine," said Haruhi.

"I will be dropping by next Wednesday, so be thinking about what you want to do," said Tamaki.

"I will think about it," said Haruhi. "Besides I have nothing better to do."

"The twins did leave you Super Smash Brothers."

"They did. Maybe I will play it since I beat everyone else."

"I should get going. I have school work to do. It is defiantly harder in college," said Tamaki before waving good bye and leaving.

Once back inside, Haruhi took out her laptop and began surfing the web. She was thinking how she wished she could see the host club members more often, but she wanted to see Tamaki the mo... Her thoughts came to an abrupt and sputtering stop. Why was she wanting to see Tamaki more than the other hosts, she asked herself. She shut off her laptop and scuttled to her room before laying down on her bed. Now, she was really wishing for her parents to be alive to tell her how they had gotten together.

* * *

Three months had quickly past, but in that time, Haruhi had filled it with being with friends. She had been to each of the host club members' houses and some more than others. The twins had dragged her several times to their place to try on clothes after helping her study for the entrance exams, which she had passed. She had also went to Honey's place several times to talk to him and sometimes Mori, when he was there, about what she had realized that one night after the host club had stayed with her. Honey's positive view on life was what she needed when trying to sort out why she wanted to see Tamaki more than everyone else.

One day about two weeks ago, she was at Mori's looking at the traditional outdoor setting and blurted out to Mori that she wished she had asked how here parents had gotten together. Mori told her that she should ask Kyoya about what her father had written for her to read. Thanking Mori, she left and went to Kyoya's. When she encountered Kyoya, she knew he was still up to his "shadow king" tricks because he had a smirked on his face like he knew what was up. "You are still as easy to read as ever," he said with a smirk from across the table in his room.

"You're still the shadow king," said Haruhi with a glare.

"I still see a need to watch out for all of you. Your father did not trust Tamaki with everything," said Kyoya.

"So Mori was right that you had some things from my father."

"I do. Your father wrote many things because he wanted to be prepared for the worst case scenario of him dying. However, he did not want you to have it all at once," said Kyoya without a smirk. "So, what do you want?"

"Umm...I-want-to-know-how-they-met," she spat out ramming the words together as she looked down in a blatant attempt to disguise her embarrassment.

Kyoya smiled and rose to his feet before he brought back a neat little stack of papers. "This should be what you want. This was the first thing that he wrote down. This stack is about the first meeting to the first month of marriage. I think that should be enough for now," said Kyoya with a slight smirk as he rose to his feet. "If you want, you can read them here and only Renge and I will interrupt you, but that will only be around meals."

He left her there to read and every day after that day, she had been coming to his place to read for a few hours a day and now today, a Wednesday, she was finishing up reading the last of the stack of papers Kyoya had given her. Reading what her father had written had indeed helped her sort out what she was feeling about Tamaki and it was a week ago when she realized that she was in love with the idiot. It had taken her awhile to absorb her realization, but she probably wouldn't have handled it as well as she did if Kyoya and Renge didn't talk to her. Only a day after she made her realization, Kyoya had come to her and began talking to her and when she ate dinner with Kyoya and Renge, Renge started a conservation with Kyoya that was full of hints that they were indeed in relationship, but that conservation had made Haruhi accept her realization with more ease. Now as she was finishing the final page of the stack, she was thinking ahead to tonight.

Tamaki had been bugging her for the past three months that she should come and stay at the 2nd Suoh mansion and when she had asked her to come stay with him tonight, she had agreed considering that on Friday he was leaving to study in America for the fall term. Even though she would not see until sometime after mid-December afterFriday, she was still not feeling up to telling Tamaki about her feelings. She had told both Renge and Kyoya this and Kyoya told her that there would be a perfect time for her to tell him. Accepting the advice, she was looking forward to spending as much time as she could with Tamaki.

Seeing it was close to noon, Haruhi got on to her feet and started to walk towards the door, but Kyoya appeared before she even reached the door. "I see you are finally done reading that stack I gave you awhile ago," said Kyoya gazing at the table in his room. "We are ready to leave for lunch."

Haruhi nodded. All of the members of the host club were gathering for lunch today since it would be the last time that they would all be able to get together before Tamaki left for America to study. As she was riding with Kyoya and Renge, Haruhi was thinking about how she enjoyed the craziness that seemed to follow her rich friends. Being forced to join the Host Club was probably the best thing that had happened in her life. The friendships she had with everyone was something that could not disappear over time, even if she wanted them to do so. As the limo stopped, it was enough to jolt her from her thoughts and back to reality to notice Kyoya offering a hand to her to help her out of the limo. She took it and he led her into the restaurant while Renge walked behind them. Being the first ones to arrive, they sat down at the table that had been reserved for them and they began to converse, mainly it was Renge talking with Kyoya while Haruhi was starring off, thinking.

After a few minutes had past, Hikaru and Kaoru showed up and sat down at the table. With the twins, Haruhi had found it more interesting to listen to the conservation around the table than think. Once Mori and Honey arrived, they ordered their food and then ate. They chatted about the good old days in the host club and the things that have changed. Then they talked about the things that didn't changed. After paying the bill and leaving a tip for their waiter, they exited the restaurant and spent a few minutes on goodbyes. Mori and Honey were the first to say goodbye. Kyoya didn't bother with a long goodbye, but Renge did. Then the twins teased Tamaki about something that Haruhi had no clue about before saying goodbye and wishing him luck. Then Tamaki and Haruhi left together for Tamaki had offered her to show her around the University before going to his last exam at the University before he would leave to study in America.

After showing her around, Tamaki had led her towards a public library nearby and told her that she could wait there for him while he was off taking his exam. She agreed to wait for him at the library and after he left, she found a book that she began to read.

* * *

Tamaki was hurrying towards the library that he had left Haruhi at a mere hour and a half ago. His test had went well and he had finished earlier than most of his other peers. Upon entering the library, he looked around for Haruhi and found her still reading. Sitting down nearby, he decided to let her finish the book. A few minutes past and then the soft sound of a book closing was heard. As she laid the now closed book down, she noticed Tamaki. "When did you get here?"

"A couple of minutes ago. I didn't want to interrupt you," said Tamaki. "Are you ready to go?"

"Yes."

They both got up at the same time and Haruhi took the book she was reading before placing it on a cart for a librarian to refile it at a later time. Then they walked out of the library and started to walk to the 2nd Suoh mansion.

* * *

The night had been calm and interesting. Dinner was delicious and the conversation had centered upon the changes that both of them would be experiencing. After dinner, Tamaki had played a few songs for her on the piano. Then he had shown her to his personal library and told her if she wanted to read any of the books he has, she could borrow them if she wished. Tamaki had watched her for the rest of the night as she looked through the books, picking a few she wanted to read. When he noticed she was starting to get tired, he led her up to the guest room that was hers for the night. He had bid her good night before leaving her alone. Now, she is in bed thinking about what tomorrow would bring as she fell asleep not noticing that Tamaki was watching her from the doorway.

* * *

When she woke the next morning, it was dark outside and Haruhi picked up her cell phone flipping it open to check the time. Once realizing it was indeed morning, she got out of bed and then began to get change. Her wardrobe had not changed much since high school, but she had more other clothes that were nice looking that were not dress. She smiled thinking about how the twins had listened to her about not wanting dresses. It had seriously surprised her, but when the twins had done so, it surprised her even more so.

Turning to look at herself in the mirror, she was pleased by how she looked in blue flare jeans and white and black striped t-shirt. Now, she needed to find her Senpai.

* * *

Tamaki was waiting for Haruhi in his room. Looking out of the window, the clouds in the sky were omionous. Hoping that it would not thunder was a cause that became lost as a crash of thunder was heard. Tamaki jumped and looked around, but as soon as he heard a whimper outside his bedroom's door, he knew where the androgynous young woman was. Opening his door and looking to the side, he spotted Haruhi. Carefully, he went over to her and picked her before he began to walk, all the while he was whispering words of comfort to her.

When he stopped walking, he was next to the piano. With care, he let Haruhi down on the bench, whispering encouragements for her to sit properly. Then he sat down and began to play the song he had played to her the day almost three months ago. He threw himself into the music and every few measures, he would look over to see how Haruhi was doing. Every time he saw her being fully absorb in the piano music and not realizing the thunder was still came once in awhile, he smiled knowing his music was helping. As he moved into another song, he could hear the thunder was slowing and becoming softer. Within the final measures of the current song, only rain could be heard and Tamaki played out the last measures with grace, letting the final notes ring and hang in the air after they had been played.

As the notes faded, her thoughts became free to wander, but she felt hungry. "Senpai," she said addressing him with the honorific, "will there be breakfast?"

"There should be," said Tamaki as he groaned inwardly at the use of that honorific. "My chef knows that I expected him to make breakfast today, but I don't know if he put it away or not since there was the storm."

"Thank you, Tamaki-senpai, for playing those songs," said Haruhi.

"It was no problem," said Tamaki. "Besides it seems to help you."

"In these past three months, I've noticed somethings," said Haruhi with a thoughtful look. "I can't multi-task as well as before and my vision, somehow, is better that I don't even need contact lenses."

Tamaki wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. "If you want more details, Kyoya should be able to tell you," Tamaki said whispering into her ear. "I'll be only doing this vaguely, but first a question. What was the last thing you can remember before waking up?"

When he had put his arms around her, Haruhi didn't react because at that moment her mind was warring with her heart that wanted her to react. She didn't even comprehend what he was speaking until a full minute had past. Blushing at hearing the concern laced in his voice, she closed her eyes, glad that he was behind her. "The last thing I remember...," she began as trying to use them conjure what she could remember about that day. She closed her eyes as she attempted to see if there was something else beyond the twins' faces of horror. The memory came to her faintly, but it was vague, "is of pain all over my body especially my eyes, but the rest is all jumbled up. Why do you ask?"

Tamaki smiled, noticing she didn't even realized why he had asked that question. "It does relate back to what I will tell you. One of the numerous injuries you had was to your eyes," said Tamaki in the same whispering voice. "It was quite bad considering the worst case was blindness, but the best case is what happened."

Now she understood why he had asked that question. "I don't think I want to know the details," she said.

"Good. Now we should go eat," said Tamaki rising from the bench and taking her hand before leading her to the find some food.

* * *

The day had went by quickly and Haruhi did not want it to end. For lunch, Tamaki had taken her back to the restaurant of Chef Franc. Franc had pulled out all the stops for them and when they had finished, he had came out and wished Tamaki good luck with his studies in America. Then he had taken her around the city to various parts. When dinner had come around, he took her home and fixed her the stew, making sure there was plenty of leftovers. Then they played a couple of rounds of Super Smash Bros Mellee before watching TV. "Haruhi, would you like to have your Christmas gift from me come from America?" Tamaki asked.

"That would be nice," she replied after some thought.

"Then I will get you a gift there," said Tamaki as he looked to the clock. "I think we should get to bed. I will probably be gone by the time you wake up, but I will email you when I arrive in America. I will try to email you the times when you can call me since there will be the time difference. I'll be giving Kyoya the spare key."

"Speaking of the Shadow King, would he know where Mei happens to be?"

"Mei has been busy. Her skills at designing clothes got noticed by the fashion world and the rest is history," said Tamaki as he began to ponder. "I think Kyoya said that next week is when she was planning to visit you."

"It will be interesting to see her again," said Haruhi as she remembered the first time she had met Mei.

Mei, the daughter of Misuzu, had come to stay with Haruhi and her dad because she did not want to stay with Misuzu during the summer. To say it was interesting with Mei around was an understatement. The host club had went about with a plot to get Mei and Misuzu to reconnect and Haruhi, without a say, was forced to play a small role. On one hand, it had distracted her from the awkwardness that had been created between her and Tamaki because of him being a kissing fiend while sick. As she now lays in her bed, still think, she realizes that feelings were starting to surface back then and she didn't even notice it.

Looking over at the clock, she noticed that she has been in bed for a good twenty minutes and her thoughts of Tamaki leaving before she woke up was keeping her up. Without her mind screaming at her to stop, she got and grabbed one of the blankets from her bed before going to the room that Tamaki was sleeping in. Carefully, she went over to his bed and laid down next to him before covering herself with the blanket she had brought. Closing her eyes, she began to attempt to drift off to sleep, but couldn't until Tamaki, in his sleep, place an arm around her and brought her closer to his body like a child would do to a stuff toy. She opened her eyes in surprise, but slowly closed them as she laid her head on Tamaki's arm before starting to drift to sleep. She was now sure that she loved Tamaki, but at the moment, she didn't think she could handle confessing her feelings openly, at least not yet.

* * *

When Tamaki awoke the next morning, he was surprised to find Haruhi was in his arms. He kissed the top of her head before sitting up. He looked at her and then picked her up and then carried her to her room. Laying her down on the bed, he covered her up before kissing her again on the forehead. Allowing his gaze to linger on her sleeping form, he knew things will be interesting the next time they will talk face to face. Leaving the room and then going to the kitchen, Tamaki took out a pen and a sheet of paper. Knowing what he wanted to write, he began to write in English on the paper "Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be morrow" and then below it he wrote the translation for the line in Japanese.

Stepping back, he looked at the paper and then came up with another ideal. Bringing out another sheet of paper, he scribbled a quick message in Japanese before he left for the 2nd Souh Mansion. He just hope that his ami would be up to buying the flowers he wanted to give to her.

* * *

**Whoa! I can't believe this was supposed to be a one-shot, but I obviously misjudged. I probably won't get a start on the next chapter of this fic for awhile because of life is getting in the way, but it will be a long chapter, maybe as long as this one, because it will have a lot of plot especially more about Grandma Souh, Yuzuru Souh, and how fate seems to play a huge part in the lives of the Host Club members. If you think this chapter is too long, tell me. Another note before I go and do my homework: Does anyone know what kind of clothes of Haruhi wears outside of school that is not forced upon her by her father or the twins? That was one of the tough parts of writing this. Any way, read and review and expect a chapter this December or January.  
**


	2. A Fake Death?

**After Two Years**

* * *

**AN: Sorry for not updating for a very long time. Also I don't think I will get the next part of this story out within a few months. This short piece is a plot twist in the story. By the end of this, you will really hate Tamaki's grandmother. At the end, there will be another author note explaining things that I used from the manga. You should be able to figure out who the 'he' is.**

* * *

He was waking up on a hard floor with limbs bound after going through what one could say was hell. Remaining still, he tried to remember what happened to him. Remembering he was in the hospital thinking that he was dying was the last memory before his memories became blank. Then he cried, thinking about how he wouldn't be able to see his little girl when she woke up from her coma in the next few months, wouldn't see her realize her love for the 'insect', but most of all, wouldn't be able to see her to pursue her dreams. As soon as his tears dried, the thing he was in jerked sending him flying into the wall and back into the blackness that was unconsciousness.

* * *

When he woke next, two people were carrying him and his head was covered. The next thing he noticed was that his hair was no longer long, but in his position he couldn't tell how short it was until the people carrying him took off what was covering his head and threw him abruptly into a river. Surprised, he tried to swim, but his bounded limbs were not helping, so he started to yell. He felt someone cut his bindings and helped him to bank. Once on the bank, he looked at the man and realized that he was probably no longer in Japan. "_Comment tu-appelles-tu_?" The man asked making him realized where he was.

"Fuji—Ryouji Fujioka," he responded in the only way he could, remembering what the 'insect' had told him about French culture.

The man realizing that he was talking to someone who didn't know much French began gesturing. Through gestures, enough information was able to be exchanged between them that Ryouji was able to understand at the least. Bidding his savior goodbye with a full stomach, he set off towards Paris to try to get back to Japan.

* * *

It had been four months since he had ended up in France and had yet to end up in Paris. Ryouji was starting to lose hope that he would ever get back to Japan. Above all of his troubles, whatever had been given to him back into Japan to make him appear to be dead was still in his system and was making him very slow at doing certain things.

About half of a month had past and he finally entered Paris, but that was the only good news to happen to him. Growing lost in the city was making him unsuccessful at finding the Japanese Embassy and for another five months, he did odd jobs while trying to pick up the language. Most of all, he was laughed up for his scruffy hair that he hadn't had the time or money to get it properly trimmed. One day, he was wondering the city and was jumped upon by a small group of bandits thinking he had money. Curled into a ball, he was thinking he was going to die until they stopped suddenly. Opening his eyes, he saw a beautify blond hair lady. "You're all right now," said the lady in Japanese placing a hand on his arm. "I'll help you. I'll keep you company."

"Thank you," he said before unconsciousness took over him.

* * *

"He shall be wakening up, miss, anytime now. However, his exhaustion and being far underweight for a man of his size, not his injuries, are more of a concern. We are trying to go through the Japanese Embassy to find out why is in France in the first place. When he wakes up could you try to get some more information out of him?" The doctor said to the blond lady in the French.

The blond lady nodded and then the doctor left her with the sleeping man that she had found. Taking in the sight of the man and his scruffy red hair, she was thinking of the man she loved that was in Japan and unable to see her because of his mother's orders. "...You're not planning to go...in that?" He mumbled from his bed in Japanese.

She looked at him and smiled. At least, when he wakes up, they would have something to talk about. "You get your rest and we can talk," she said in Japanese, but he stirred. "Are you awake, sir?"

"Yes," he said softly after opening his eyes.

"I'm Anne. What's your name?"

"Japanese order. Fujioka Ryouji, but I don't know if that will be any help to getting me back to Japan," he said.

"Why is that the case?"

"I am supposed to be dead."

"Explain."

"For several months, back in Japan, I was very tired and such. I was admitted to the hospital and I felt like I could die. The last day that I remember in Japan was the day that I felt like I died."

Silence came upon the room as Anne thought about the situation. Maybe the man she loved could help, but she probably would need more information. "Was there something that you can remember that happened before your illness that stands out in your mind?"

"There is a woman dressed in a traditional kimono with gray hair pulled back in a bun, who appeared before it started."

Anne's eyes widen upon hearing those words, bearing the only reminder of. "Is there anything else about her?"

"She looked out-of-place because she looked to be far richer than what everyone else was."

For Anne, this was enough to confirm that her lover's mother was up to no good. "I have connections to a person in Japan. This once frail body of mine kept me dependent upon a wicked woman and made me unable to see my son for my own benefit. I might be able to help you get back to Japan," said Anne as she got up from her chair. "I am going to tell the doctor that you are awake and inform him about your situation as much as I can. Also, when was the last time you've eaten a decent meal?"

"I can't remember. I've been having only bread to eat for several days. That's all I could afford."

"I will tell the doctor that as well. Is there anything else you need?"

"I don't think so."

Anne then left and he only had his thoughts for company.

* * *

It had been two days since he was admitted to the hospital in Paris and he was not doing as good as he was on the first day. Although his doctor thought his injuries were not as severe, they turned out to be needing more attention than what was thought. Coupled with the medicine he was on and his exhaustion, he was unable to stay awake long enough to eat a full meal forcing the doctors to start tube feeding him what he was unable to eat. As he exhaustion started to dissipate, he was able to talk to Anne, who had, like she promised, kept him company as much as possible.

After a full week and half since he entered the hospital, he was sitting in a chair by the window in his room at the hospital, wondering where Anne was. For one, he no longer had the feeding tube down his nose and today was the first day that the doctors allowed him to walk. Anne was the only thing that kept him rooted to reality and made sure he remembered that he would be able to get home once the pieces of the puzzle fell into place. She was the one who taught him enough French to be able to communicate with the doctors when she wasn't around. It was yesterday that Anne had been able to make him describe Haruhi and while describing her to Anne, his eyes started to water.

As he was thinking about yesterday, he didn't notice Anne had entered until she placed a hand on his shoulder. "I have something to show you," she said as she held a square cloth that was covering something close to her chest.

"What is it?"

"After you told me about your daughter yesterday, I went home and looked at all the photos my love has sent me of my son," Anne said as she placed the square cloth in his hands and lightly pulled the cloth away to reveal half of a picture in a frame. "I am sure you will recognize one of my son's friends."

Ryouji pulled the picture frame from the cloth and stared at the picture. On the half that was first revealed to him was Kyoya, Mori, and Honey sitting on one side of the table. Glancing to the head of the table in the picture, he caught sight of the 'insect' before looking to the other half of the photo. Between two identical people sat his daughter staring into space, which strike him as being odd for her. "When was this picture taken?"

"About eight and a half months ago. My love said this was taken on the day she was released from the hospital."

"She's awake...," Ryouji uttered.

"Yes, she is. My son is providing for her so she can get through college. He is very protective of her from what I've been hearing. I should be getting more pictures of my son soon and maybe we will be able to see how your daughter is doing."

"He told me that he realized that he love my daughter like how men love women. I wonder if my little girl has realized that she loves him as well," said Ryouji as he stroked the picture of Haruhi with his thumb.

"Did the doctors leave me something to translate to you?"

"Yes."

Anne went to the nightstand in the room and picked up a handwritten note in French. Quickly reading it, she translated it as best as she could into Japanese. "They want you to walk around a little more today. If you can walk around here, they will release you by the end of the week. When they release you, you will be coming to stay with me at my home that my parents have given me."

"Thank you for everything."

"It's okay. I never thought I would meet the father of the girl who my son fell in love with," said Anne as she noticed his sad look. "I am not going to leave that picture here with you because it is the only copy I have, but I'll promise to bring in a picture that was taken earlier than this one."

"Anne-san, I would appreciate it very much."

"I have a few other pictures, quite a few are of her doing physical therapy. My love told me that it didn't take long for her to get her strength back."

"What else have you heard about her?"

* * *

On Friday, Ryouji was looking at himself in the mirror taking in his fully appearance for the first time since he had come to France. His hair, he mused, was exactly the same length as what it was when he was nineteen, when he first met Kotoko, but it was scruffy. He could still see a good deal of his bones and realized that Haruhi wouldn't be able to recognize him if she was to see him today. Sighing, he left the bathroom glad to be wearing somewhat nice clothes rather than that hospital gown. Anne soon picked him up (for the doctors had gotten nowhere with the Japanese Embassy) taking him by her limo to her home.

On the way, he was lost in thought about how he ended up here in the first place. His thoughts roamed, staying on how much commotion he and Kotoko had caused in the beginning and then all of his good memories of raising Haruhi. Then his mind began to drift to the bad memories: Kotoko's death and Haruhi ending up in a coma.

"Ryouji-san, we are here," said Anne.

He nodded and got out of the limo. Seeing the home that he would be staying at for awhile surprised him. It was of a decent size: two levels, a small yard. Pulling him along, Anne brought him into the foyer of the home and once both removed their shoes, Anne took him over to the fireplace where all the pictures of her son and his friends resided. When he saw the pictures that showed Haruhi still at the hospital, he began to tear up as he took one with Tamaki holding her hand, but she was still asleep and hooked up to several machines. "When was this?"

Anne looked over his shoulder and knew when it was. "Tamaki's friend with glasses took this one on the day she woke up. I believe only Tamaki was with her when she did wake up. They had her sedated during the thunderstorm the day before and the sedative didn't full wear off until late evening of the day she woke up on."

He replaced the one he was holding and picked up one with the Host Club watching her do physical therapy in her long pajamas and a sweater. "Is this the day after she woke up?"

"Yes. There's a photo of Tamaki holding her afterwards," said Anne as she began to search for the picture and once finding it, she handed it to Ryouji. "Everyone else had left, leaving him with her. Yuzuru told me that he took her back to her room and ate with her."

He replaced the two pictures and then picked up another one. Looking at it made him want to hug Haruhi. She was wearing a very annoyed expression as she was looking at Tamaki who was lying in the bed with her, but her cheeks were slightly tinted with pink. "She's blushing, but I don't think she knows," he said. "When is this taken, Anne?"

"She woke up Friday night and that one was Sunday morning. Yuzuru said Tamaki wanted to stay with her over night, but she reluctantly agreed to it," said Anne as she looked at Ryouji, who was looking quite terrible. "Maybe you should get into bed."

"You're probably right."

* * *

Anne was getting worried about her house guest. After he started staying with her, he had suffered several bouts of fevers like the ones he described to her as him having in Japan. Her personal doctor had drawn his blood and was sending it in to get tested. As she was looking through her mail, she noticed that Yuzuru had sent her the photos up to New Years Eve. Knowing that Ryouji would probably want to see them, she gathered some frames up and went up to his room. Smiling, she noticed he was awake and went to sit by his bedside. As soon as she sat down, he sat up and saw the frames. "What pictures do you have?" He asked in Japanese.

"They are from Yuzuru and are up to New Years Eve," she said as she pulled out the first picture, a group picture of everyone. "It looks like they are celebrating the holiday together."

"Yeah, they are...," said Ryouji as he took the picture gently into his hands.

"You are really missing her," said Anne as she began to rub his back. "It gets easier as time goes on being far from your child, but at least, we can share the sadness together. I haven't been able to get in contact with Yuzuru directly, yet."

"Hopefully, something will happen," he said putting the picture he was holding into his lap, knowing full well about the situation with Yuzuru and Anne. "What are the other pictures?"

Anne pulled out a few more pictures and handed them to him. They began talking and Anne read the letter from Tamaki (written in French) that Yuzuru had included with the pictures. As she was reading the letter, Ryouji was starting to tear up when she read parts that was talking about Haruhi. By the time she was done reading, he was crying. Anne tried to calm him, but he eventually cried himself asleep. Gazing at the still thin man, Anne couldn't help, but feel sad for him.

Anne was enjoying the piano music being played by one of her students. As the music flowed into the air, Anne was able to forget about the current problems. After an hour, the student left and her personal doctor had entered. "I have news about your house guest, my lady," said the doctor in French.

"Come with me to the sitting room," she said leading the man to a small room with a couch and a chair. She sat down on the chair and the doctor sat down on the couch. "Please tell me. I would love to see my house guest to be able to go sightseeing."

"I sent his blood to be tested in Japan by the Ootori group and I got more than what I bargained for. Yoshio Ootori has a son that knows your house guest and sent along with the proper medicine to treat him, his supposed 'death certificate.'"

"Yuzuru has told me of the man, Yoshio Ootori. Is there more?"

"Yes, madame. Mr. Ootori and his youngest son are doing some digging about your house guest and how he ended up in France. They will not inform his daughter until a later date. They want to be 100 percent sure that he is the one."

"Will you start giving him the medicine today? His fevers has decided to come back," said Anne looking out the door at the steps.

"Once his fever is back down, madame. I will go and check on him today. Has he been eating well?"

"Yes, he has."

"Then madame, please show me the way to his room."

* * *

Today was a day full of rushing about and Anne was preparing to have seven guests enter her house. Of all she had been trying to do, keeping her house guest uninformed of the visitors was becoming quite a hard thing to do for his strength was back and he was walking around the house far more than what he had for the past few weeks. After directing the maids what to do with the five guest bedrooms, she went to see Ryouji and give him hints about what was going on. He was sitting on his bed and looking at a picture of Haruhi and Tamaki on Christmas in the Second Suoh mansion, one that Yuzuru had taken with them knowing about it. "You still miss your daughter," said Anne in Japanese once she sat down next to him.

"I do," he said sadly.

"I having some more house guest that are coming by today. They will be calling shortly," she said as the phone began to rang. "Someone knew I was talking about them."

Anne got up and Ryouji followed her to the phone downstairs. When she picked up the phone, she said bonjour.

"Is this Anne-Sophie?" The caller asked in Japanese.

"And this is...?" Anne asked in Japanese.

"Kyoya, Ootori Kyoya."

"So have you landed?"

"Yes we have."

"Kyoya, when will you be arriving at my place?" Anne asked causing Ryouji to run the rest of the way down the stairs and stand beside her.

"What was that I heard in the background? We should be about thirty minutes out, but we have yet to eat anything since dinner in Japan which was yesterday," said Kyoya with some amusement.

"My house guest. It should be okay for you guys to eat. Lunch will not be happening until noon."

"Ah. Your house guest, one Ryouji 'Ranka' Fujioka. Have you looked in today's paper, Anne-san?"

"No, I haven't."

"There's big news out of Japan. Do you think you can put your house guest on the phone?"

Anne pulled the mouth piece away and covered it with her hand. "Ryouji, would you like to talk to Kyoya?"

"Yes," he said.

"I will hand the phone to him and go see what this big news is," said Anne as she handed the phone to Ryouji.

"Hello, Kyoya," said Ryouji into the phone.

"It is good to hear your voice. I would let you talk to Haruhi if she wasn't so tired right now," said Kyoya.

"Did my dear little daughter sleep well on the flight?"

"I would say not. She woke up a few times during the flight and each time, she also woke up Tamaki as well," said Kyoya.

"What else can you tell me about her?"

"A few weeks after New Years, she was attacked by some goons, who are connected to the person who is responsible for your current situation. Tamaki was not far away since it was near the campus of the university that they go to and he was able to protect her from getting more serious wounds, but getting wounded as well," said Kyoya pausing and then chuckling at something he saw. "Haruhi is quite attached to Tamaki at the moment. Him protecting her from those goons made her worry about him more. However, her sticking close to him was starting not to happen as often until she found out that you were alive."

"So do you know if...?" Ryouji trailed off unable to say the words that would make his heart hurt.

"Her actions around him have confirmed it. She did ask about how you met her mother and she was quite _unlike herself_ when she did ask," said Kyoya as Ryouji was handed the morning newspaper by Anne.

"Kyoya-kun, what did the president of the Souh Group do to be arrested?" Ryouji asked after reading the article's headline.

"Me and my father have massed a huge amount of evidence of her tampering with medical records. She was the one who found it amusing to play that prank on all of us and if I ever see another realistic fake death that fools me, I'll make sure they will seriously regret crossing paths with me," said Kyoya.

"She did what?"

"She made sure that your 'fake' death was believable to everyone including you. She also sent those goons after Haruhi and on a hunch, my father and I think she might involved with the incident that caused Haruhi to go into that coma."

"If she did that, is she wanting to get rid of me and Haruhi?"

"Possible so," said Kyoya. "I have to let you go, but is there anything else you would like for me to know?"

"Tell my dear little daughter that she wont recognize me."

"I will tell her that. I hope we will be able to talk in person. Goodbye."

"Goodbye," said Ryouji as he hanged up the phone. "I can't believe it."

"You are starting to look quite pale and I can't have you fainting on me down here," said Anne as she grabbed his hands and began leading him back upstairs to his room. "You are going to rest until they get here."

Ryouji just nodded and as soon as he got into his bed, he was out like a light, not to wake until noon to see the sight that had been denied to him for so long.

**

* * *

AN: So that's the tale of one fake death. There are some details that I used from the manga. Tamaki's mother's name is one. I used the names for Kyoya's dad (Yoshio Ootoro) and Tamaki's dad (Yuzuru Souh) as given in the manga. Also instead of using Ranka, I used his actually name, not the gingja. **

**For ages of the characters, I will list them here since this is such a short little chapter. Ages are based off of ages given in the manga.**

**Haruhi and twins: 20**

**Kyoya and Tamaki: 21**

**Honey and Mori: 22**

**Ryouji "Ranka": about 40 (his age when Haruhi was fifteen was given as being 35)**

**Another thing, about how Haruhi's parents met, some of that information was taken out of the manga bonus chapter, such as the age of Ryouji when he met Kotoko and the whole commotion thing. **

**One more last note: Thank you to all the people who reviewed the first chapter as well as those who alerted and favorite it.**

**Please leave a review telling me how I did with Ranka, but I think some of his personality in this chapter came from his situation.**


	3. Nightmares

After Two Years

**AN: Just to give a heads up, there are a couple of lines that needed to be ignored and those lines will be identified.**

* * *

When Haruhi woke up, she found herself in her own bed and realized that Tamaki must have brought her here before he left. Getting up and looking up at the clock to see it was mid-morning, she decided to get dress. When she went to the kitchen, she found the quote from Romeo and Juliet that he had written down before she had found another note next to a vase of Forget-Me-Nots. Surprised, she read the note:

I will remember waking up with you next to me while I am in America. Kyoya will have the spare key and hopefully he can get the flowers that I asked for to you. While I'm in America, I will try to make sure I have the time to talk to you and everyone at least once a week.

After reading it, she looked to the Forget-Me-Nots and sighed. Tamaki would defiantly be the one to do this kind of thing and Kyoya would be willing to help as a trustworthy friend. Taking one of the flowers, she began to twirl it between her fingers like she had seen Tamaki and began to think. Things were defiantly starting to change between her and Tamaki, but she did not want her relationship with everyone else in the club change for the worst. Putting the flower back in the vase, she decided she should eat before going out and buying supplies for starting college on Monday. She was glad that Tamaki had fixed her plenty of extras of the stew because she really did not want to spend the day fixing something for herself.

* * *

"He did that?!"

"Yeah, he did," Haruhi said to Mei.

It was Tuesday and the second day of classes in the new term. Earlier, Mei had called her and wanted to know when she would be eating lunch. Several hours and a few classes later, they were at a café, eating and talking about what Tamaki had done. When Haruhi had told Mei what she did, Mei had been surprised. "You seemed to have quite an interesting three months then," said Mei sipping some tea. "Has anyone told you about how those first few days went?"

"No," Haruhi said, knowing what Mei was referring to.

"Well, Tamaki came only once during the first few days and it was on the first day. After that, he did not come back until Kyoya went after him and talked to him. When he showed back up, he was able to coax your father from staying around so much. He was able to get your father to continue life and that was when he started writing that Kyoya has started giving you."

"Do you know why he was not...," Haruhi asked trailing off, not wanting to say those worlds.

"No, but everyone has their little theories," said Mei. "By the way, how is classes going?"

"So far, it is not as hard as high school," she said before looking out the window. "How is your life?"

"There is a lot to tell you. Do you have the time?"

"My next class doesn't start until three."

"Okay," said Mei before she started to talk about her ascent into the world of fashion.

* * *

It had been a full month of classes since Tamaki had left to study in America, but it wasn't so bad. Late at night or early in the morning, he was online and everyone of the original host club would be on and they would chat about life. Then there was the nights with late night summer thunderstorms where Haruhi would call him and he would talk endlessly to distract her from each time there was thunder.

Now she was sitting at this café that the twins had asked her to wait at. They had wanted her to meet their fiancées, and their fiancées wanted to meet her. Looking at the time on her cell phone, she sighed realizing that they were ten minutes late and that if they were any more late, she would have to leave and she would go study for that test that was coming up this Monday. While being completely absorb in her thoughts, Haruhi did not notice two sets of arms come and draped themselves on her shoulders.

The twins were grinning with plots in their minds as their fiancées looked on. Hikaru took the initiative and grabbed Haruhi's hand tightly, so tightly that Haruhi jumped from her chair, almost tipping it over if it wasn't for Kaoru who grabbed her chair to stop it from tipping over. "Why did you do that?!" She asked looking at Hikaru.

"You are so fun to catch off guard," said Hikaru with a grin. "Besides its been soooooo long since we last had any fun with you."

"Oh Hikaru, you should let your friend have her personal space," said one of the two fiancées with long brown hair.

"Kaoru, you too," commanded the other with dark hair.

Both Hikaru and Kaoru dropped their arms from Haruhi and back away. "We should introduce you to our fiancées," said the twins together.

"Haruhi, this is Akari," said Hikaru as he gestured to the one with long brown hair.

"This is Akeno," said Kaoru as he gestured to the other.

"Akari, Akeno, this is Haruhi from our high school," the twins said before adding, "and the first to win 'Which one is Hikaru?' game."

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Haruhi," said Akari before bowing. "We've heard a lot about you from our fiancés. If me and Akeno weren't so busy, we probably would've met earlier."

"That's okay. I've been quite busy myself with classes and getting use to things," said Haruhi as she sat down again.

The twins, before sitting down, pulled out chairs for their fiancées; Hikaru Akari's, Kaoru Akeno's. "So, Haruhi, how are things going?" Hikaru asked after sitting down.

"Busy, but someone I know has been treating me to lunch for almost every day of classes, but I don't why the Chairman of Ouran would treat me to lunch," said Haruhi.

"You mean Tamaki's father has been treating you to lunch?!" Kaoru and Hikaru said, somewhat surprise.

"Yes. Why?"

"Kyoya was in France and was able to meet Tamaki's mother. His father has been in contact with his mother. We don't know why or anything like that. Tamaki doesn't know about it," said Hikaru sighing. "Really, the Souh family is strange."

"Hikaru, you really shouldn't be talking about stuff like this," Akari said. "It's all speculation."

"You're right Akari," said Hikaru looking at Akari before turning back to look at Haruhi. "I place more trust in the Chairman than the Chairwoman."

"I would agree with you on that. I haven't cross paths with the Chairwoman for a long time."

"That's right," said Kaoru looking at his brother and then at Akeno who looked down. "Akeno had a ran in with her and it was not good. The Chairwoman has become more condescending. The lowest of the rich are scum in her opinion. I would prepare yourself, Haruhi, for crossing paths with her. She is far harsher than what she was five years ago. I am pretty sure that the Chairman has something to do with you not crossing paths with her at the moment."

"Now, let's stop this talk and eat," said Akari.

Everyone agreed and placed their orders before allowing their conversation to drift to the days of being in the Host Club.

* * *

November had come and since her first meeting of Akari and Akeno, Haruhi decided to pay more attention to the Chairman when he treated her to lunch. Today, she was waiting for him at the café near campus while reading from one of her many textbooks. When she finished reading the chapter that she was on, she laid down the book and saw Tamaki's father already seated with a cup sitting in front of him. "You know you could've tapped me on my shoulder, Chairman," Haruhi said to the man before her.

"Yuzuru. You can call me by name," said Yuzuru. "I didn't tap you on your shoulder because you remind me of one of my college classmates, who would've put me in the bad books if I did that."

"I remind you of a classmate?"

"Yes, you do, but I think my son and his friends have probably had gotten you use to being startled," said Yuzuru.

"I guess so," said Haruhi adverting eyes with Yuzuru before returning her eyes to look at him while thoughts of why he had brought up a classmate of his. "Tell me more about this classmate of yours."

"Before I do tell you more, answer this question that I asked of her," said Yuzuru pausing. "When are you going to slow down and take care of yourself?"

"I've never thought about it," said Haruhi. "Why do you ask?"

"I wanted to see if your answer would be the same and it is," said Yuzuru. "I had asked that question a week before she had fallen ill and needed me to take care of her. We were good friends through college, but once I graduated things happened that didn't allow us to meet after then and keep up with the happening in each others' lives."

"Have you tried to find her recently?"

"I have several times tried to find her. I believe this is the time I should tell you this," said Yuzuru looking at the cup he had between his hands. "My classmate that I've lost connections with was your mother."

Immediately, Haruhi looked down, stunned that Yuzuru and her mother had ever crossed paths. "How?" She asked loud enough for him to hear.

"She was in one of my general education classes, one of those classes that are required for everyone. One time, she came to class and mid-way through class, she was asleep. I woke her up at the end of class and noticed that she indeed was sick. I was able to convince her to avoid classes for a few days. To make sure she was doing what I told her to do, I would drop in to visit her unannounced and bring takeout with me. We became friends after that, but after I graduated, our communications between each other became more sparse. After graduating from law school, I never heard from her again because I was too busy to be able to keep up with changing addresses and phone numbers. Then of course, there was that trip I took to France and you probably know the result of that," said Yuzuru as he stood up. "I will order some food. I am assuming the usual is okay with you."

Haruhi nodded and picked up her book again as Yuzuru walked away. Trying to read ahead, she found she was being plagued with questions about what Yuzuru had revealed to her. When he had returned, she ate in silence trying not to let all of her emotions swarm her because she really didn't have the time or will to deal with them. "Can you please not talk about this unless I ask?" Haruhi said after finish eating.

"I was probably inconsiderate of your emotions and you will need to be forthcoming when I go too far. Perhaps this was not the best place to tell you," said Yuzuru with wild gestures before laying his hands quietly on his lap. "Now that I told you that. I wanted to tell you why I brought that up. My son has been calling me more often. He is worried about you not responding to his emails. Please do stop making him worry."

"I guess I should respond to them, but I haven't had much time to do so," said Haruhi.

"Do you need me to hound you to do that?"

"I should be able to remember now that you told me. Anyway, I should get going to class," said Haruhi as she started to get up and walk away.

"Another thing," Yuzuru said to her before she became to far from him. "Don't forget to take care of yourself. You'll get sick otherwise if you don't.

"I will try to remember that," she said before leaving Yuzuru behind.

* * *

Tamaki was fidgeting with his hands as he rode in his limo to the Suoh Mansion #2 on a late Friday afternoon before Christmas, worrying about Haruhi. Looking out the window, he thought about the last email he had received from her. It was short and he could tell in that one email that she was concerned about other things. After that email, the only thing he heard was from others and his father and they were trying to encourage her to rest more than she was doing. Knowing she was not getting enough rest had made him start to worry while he was studying for final exams for his classes in America. Now that he was back in Japan, all he could think about was seeing Haruhi before he could do anything else.

As soon as his limo stopped, he exited it, went straight inside, and straight to his piano. When he started playing, the head housekeeper, Shima, watched while wondering why her young master would want to play the piano after immediately getting home. Then he finished and walked over to a window as the last notes he played slowly faded. "Shima," he started, still looking out, "have you heard anything about Haruhi?"

"I've only heard that your father has been requesting her to take the limo, not walk, when her classes are done," said Shima.

"Thank you Shima," said Tamaki. "I'll go and see her if her classes are done."

"Young master, her classes are done for today and your father is there with her,' said Shima before bowing and leaving.

* * *

When he entered the guest house that Haruhi had been given, his father trapped him into a bear hug, despite Tamaki saying he wanted to see Haruhi. Upon releasing him from the hug, Yuzuru took his son to Haruhi's room. Tamaki, upon seeing Haruhi looking exhausted in her sleep, went over to her and brushed his fingers against her forehead, feeling the slight fever. Looking at his father in the doorway, he gave a face full of concern. "My son, she only recently received that fever. She has been neglecting sleep and exhaustion from the lack of sleep is probably not helping her. I will leave you here, but you better not do anything that she will not like," said Yuzuru before leaving.

Tamaki looked back at Haruhi before he laid on himself on her bed, keeping some distance between himself and her. "I will make you that stew tonight for you," said Tamaki before placing a hand on her forehead and falling asleep.

* * *

As she began to wake, she felt a hand on her forehead and thought it was Yuzuru checking her temperature, but there was something familiar about this hand laying on her forehead that her sleep laden mind was not able to pull together. Opening her eyes, she looked over to the arm that the said hand was attached to and allowed her eyes wonder up the arm to the blond hair of Tamaki. She realized that he had returned and that his father had indeed been right about her worrying him. Wiggling her arms out from underneath the covers, she took his hand and pulled it off her forehead before laying it next to her. Turning onto her side, she got comfy and pulled his arm to close to her, wrapping her arms around it like a child would do to a precious stuff animal. Closing her eyes, she tried to go back to sleep, but her emotions, which she had fully figured out awhile ago, were not letting her. She wanted Tamaki to wake up.

While Haruhi was trying to sleep, Tamaki was starting to wake up and he immediately noticed that his hand was no longer on Haruhi's forehead, but felt his arm was wrapped up in her arms. Opening his eyes, he saw her with her eyes closed and was surprised that what he felt was what he was seeing. Before, he was usually the one who had initiated their physical contact except for thunderstorms. Not wanting to wake her, he tried to slide his arm from her arms, but found her clutching his arm more tightly in response to his movement. Now, he would have to wake her. "Haruhi," he called softly causing her to open her eyes.

"I missed you," she said before he could say anything else.

"If you let go of my arm, I will go and make the stew," said Tamaki before Haruhi let go of his arm slowly. As he was starting to rise from the bed, he noticed that she was trying to sleep. "Do you want me to sing you something until you fall asleep?" She nodded. "It's a French lullaby," he mentioned as he settled himself to a sitting position and began to sing softly in French.

_Frere Jacques, frere Jacques_

_Dormez-vous? Dormez-vous? _

_Sonnez les matines, sonnez les matines _

_Ding dang dong, ding dang dong._

He sang the verse a couple of time until he saw she had finally fell back asleep. Standing up, he pulled the covers up to her shoulders and then turned around to see his dad watching him with a smile. "I heard you singing," said Yuzuru softly, pausing, "and hopefully you being around will help her sleep."

"Why do you say that, dad?"

"She has been waking up every twenty minutes to look at the clock for I had told her what time you would be back. She hasn't had a really deep sleep since she woke up this morning to go take her exam."

"How often have you been spending with her?" Tamaki asked as he and his father started to walk to the kitchen.

"A few hours each day, but today, I have been here since lunch," said Yuzuru. "Once she finished eating, I noticed she had a fever and I sent her straight to bed. What are you planning on doing for Christmas?"

"I was thinking about getting together with everyone else on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, but I don't want her to be alone since there is a chance that the holiday will bring up that her dad is not around," said Tamaki as he entered the kitchen and went straight to the fridge to open it and look. "It looks like there are a few ingredients that I will need for the stew."

"I could get them for you, if you don't want to leave here, but what is so special about this stew?" Yuzuru asked.

"When I first made it for Ranka-san, he liked it and when I made it for her, she also liked it," said Tamaki as he closed the fridge.

"That is interesting," said Yuzuru. "Can you give me a list of ingredients you will need?" Tamaki nodded and then wrote down the ingredients before giving them to his father. When his father left, he went back to Haruhi's room and gently sat down on her bed before he watched her sleep for the thirty minutes it took for his father to return with the ingredients. Before he left her again, he brushed her bangs off her forehead and then placed a light kiss on her forehead.

* * *

After an hour, the stew was finished and Tamaki poured out some for his father, Haruhi, and himself. His father told him that he should eat with Haruhi in the bedroom so that she didn't have to get up. Tamaki agreed and left his father in the kitchen to eat his share of the stew, taking two bowls with him. When he entered the room, he sat down the two bowls of soup and went over and felt Haruhi's forehead. He smiled when he realized that her temperature had not went up since he had last had his hand on her forehead. Removing his hand from her forehead to her shoulder, he called out her name and she opened her eyes. "I have the stew ready and my dad suggested us to eat here together," said Tamaki. "Can you sit up?"

"I think so," she said softly before pushing herself into a sitting position with some help from Tamaki.

Once he saw her sitting, he picked up the bowls and gave one to her before he sat down on the bed and they began to eat in silence. When she was done, she placed the bowl on the bed between him and leaned against him, causing him to look at her. "Do you want more?" He asked as he sat down his empty bowl.

"Not at the moment, but could you tell me what it was like to study in America for a semester?" Tamaki agreed to her request and spent the rest of the night with her talking about what he experienced in America. Before he left for the Souh 2nd mansion, he made her promise to call him when she woke and tucked her in as he was singing the French lullaby from earlier.

* * *

When she had woke up that Monday morning before Christmas Eve, Haruhi felt immensely better than what she had on Saturday. Thinking back, she had woken up that day with a worse fever and she barely was able to call Tamaki. He had come with Kyoya in tow and once he had felt her forehead, he went to get a wet washcloth. While Tamaki was getting the washcloth, Kyoya gave her a glass of water and some medicine. She took it and laid back down before Tamaki had come in with the washcloth. The two co-founders of the club had stayed with her most of the day Saturday and Tamaki had fixed them something to eat. Kyoya had left that night, but Tamaki stayed that night to make sure she did not get worst. On Sunday, she was slightly better, but still had a fever and Tamaki stayed by her side with his computer instant messaging the other club members about when to get together. Before he had left last night, he had sung her Fere Jacques again and as she was drifting off to sleep, he kissed her on the forehead making her dreams that night focus (and she really didn't want to admit it) on what their first kiss would be like.

Sitting in bed, she was thinking about what kind of gift to get Tamaki and decided it would probably be a good ideal to have someone helps her get gifts for her friends. She decided to call Mei since she was the only person that she had regular contact with outside of the host club. After agreeing when to meet, Haruhi went to get ready.

* * *

It was becoming quite an exhausting day and it was not even late afternoon. Getting Christmas presents for all of the original Host Club members was turning out to be harder than what Haruhi had thought and being the day before Christmas Eve was not helping. However, having Mei had turned out to be the right ideal for she had made sure that they did take breaks. "I should've been doing this earlier," said Haruhi from her seat across from Mei at one the tables in the food court of the mall they went to.

"You should've been looking at the calendar," said Mei.

"Classes kept piling work on."

"You should've been taking breaks," Mei countered.

"Everyone has been reminding me to do so. It is getting tiring to be reminded so," said Haruhi before sighing.

"And if you had listened to them, you wouldn't have ended up sick." "Let's get going. I still need to find a gift," said Haruhi as she rosed from her seat and saw something that caught her eye. She started to walk towards it leaving Mei behind.

Noticing this, Mei went after her and noticed what had caught the androgynous girl's eyes: charms. Being surprised, Mei wondered why Haruhi would even think about charms. "What is it?" Mei asked.

Not responding to the question asked to her, Haruhi glanced at the charms and found one of a bear that reminded her very much of Tamaki's kuma-chan. Picking it up, she looked at it with intense scrutiny before turning back to look at the other charms. Then she picked another, this time a lion, and saw another charm that depicted a Saint Bernard before picking it up. Mei watched as she picked up three more charms: an emperor penguin and two calico cat charms that had some minor differences. When Mei saw the cat charms, she knew what the charms were meant to represent and noticed that Haruhi was looking for another charm, but once she found it, Mei was able to glance at it to see it was a depiction of a tanuki before Haruhi had run off to pay for it.

"Is that all you are going to get them?" Mei asked.

"I've told them all ahead of time that if I was to cook the meal for our get together, then they should not expect much else from me," said Haruhi as she started to walk towards the mall's exit.

Shaking her head, Mei went after Haruhi and thought that she never would understand her androgynous friend.

* * *

The smell of food came to her nose and cause her to open her eyes that were still laden with sleep. She glanced at the clock and noticed that it was 7:30 in the morning. Closing her eyes again, she tried to get a few more minutes of sleep, but her stomach protested, forcing her to get up. She got dressed quickly before she left her room. Being more concerned about thinking what she needed to do for the rest of the day, she did not notice Tamaki coming towards until she ran into him face first. As she was about to fall, he wrapped his arms around her and steadied her. "Haruhi," he said softly, "do you want to eat breakfast?"

All she did was nodded, ruffling his shirt with the movement of her head. Understanding the motion, Tamaki took her hand and lead her to the kitchen. Both of them sat down and they ate breakfast together quietly. Then Tamaki asked if she needed help with lunch and she refused, but said that he could watch. When it was nine, the other host club members arrived bearing decorations and presents. While they were decorating, she was fixing lunch with Tamaki's eyes watching her every movement. Once she sat down after putting everything on the stove or in the oven, she laid her head in her arms and began to slowly nod off. "Do you want me to take over?" Tamaki asked.

"No, wake me up in five minutes," Haruhi said with her eyes closed.

"Okay, I will," said Tamaki, "but really five minutes is not all that long." "Tono, are you up for a game?" Hikaru asked after entering the kitchen.

"Can't. She wants me to wake her up in five minutes," said Tamaki softly.

"I hear from Mei that she was very tired when they went shopping yesterday," said Hikaru.

"When I left Sunday, she didn't have a fever and that should not explain her tiredness."

"I will go and tell everyone else that you are helping her," said Hikaru before leaving.

Tamaki looked at the clock and watched the minutes tick by until it was finally time for him to wake her up. He began to try to awake Haruhi, but spent a half of a minute trying until he saw her open her eyes that were unfocused. "Do you want me to take over?" He asked again with more concern. "Or help?"

Blinking her eyes owlishly, Haruhi was able to focus her eyes and realized that Tamaki would probably not take no for an answer. "You can help," she said and began giving directions to Tamaki as she let her head remain on the table.

* * *

When lunch was finished, only Hikaru knew that Tamaki probably had to finish making lunch because Haruhi seemed more awake than what she did earlier. Then everyone went to open their gifts and they appreciated the charms Haruhi had given them. When she went to open her gifts, there was only four. Tamaki had told her that his gift was to be the Christmas dinner done by his chefs and Kyoya said his gift would be on Friday and Tamaki would tell her more of the details. Hikaru's gift was some chocolates with strawberry filling that he had bought when he was in Italy for a spell. Kaoru's gift was a herb and spices set. Hunny's gift was a picture frame and Mori's was some gift cards to several different stores. When all the gifts had been opened, everyone was laying around and was growing quite bored. "Tono, what should we do?" The twins asked in sync.

"Hmmm...maybe hide and seek for awhile outside," said Tamaki and saw that everyone agree with it. "Then it's settled, men. We'll all play hide and seek."

"Senpai, it is really cold outside," said Haruhi gazing out the windows.

"It shouldn't matter, Haruhi. Besides we all have our coats," said Tamaki overly cheerfully.

Haruhi mentally grumbled about it for the only coat that she had was made for far warmer weather, but at the moment, she really didn't want to deal with the twins being bored and starting to fake fight, so she didn't raise any objections. Once she put on her coat, she waited for everyone else to do the same and they all headed outside.

_

* * *

Oh great, I'm more of idiot than senpai is_, Haruhi mentally berating herself for going farther than she thought she would as she tried to find her way back. When Tamaki had been chosen the seeker and he started counting, everyone had went their separate ways except for the twins, who were together, and she happened to go far further than what she had explored on a good day. Now it was plainly obvious to her that she needed to get back soon or the cold would start to get to her. As she kept walking aimlessly (not the best ideal she knew), she tried to find signs that she was heading in the correct direction, but when she heard Tamaki and Kyoya calling for her, a smile ushered forth to her face as she called out to them.

When Tamaki reached her, he noticed she was shivering and began to take off his coat. "It looks like my coat will be more helpful to you," he said as he placed the coat on her and zipped it up.

"Thanks, senpai," Haruhi replied to his gesture as Kyoya finally reached them.

"We should get you inside before you come down with hypothermia," said Kyoya pushing up his glasses. "It will probably be faster if Tamaki carries you."

As Haruhi was about to reply, a yawn escaped from her mouth instead of a reply and Tamaki, without her noticing, had already scoped her off her feet and into his arms. "Why are you so tired, dau--Haruhi?" Tamaki asked causing Kyoya to raise an eyebrow at him almost calling Haruhi daughter again.

Haruhi didn't respond allowing silence to fall as they started to walk off with Kyoya in the lead. As they were walking, they were all thinking about their own things; Haruhi about how far she went, Tamaki about why Haruhi seemed so tired, Kyoya think about why Tamaki was about to call Haruhi daughter. Of the three's thoughts, Kyoya was the only one to fully resolved them and figure out an answer when they arrived back at the guest house. Obviously, Kyoya thought, Tamaki wanted to show he cared for her more than as friend, but was unable to be successful with it.

* * *

Lying on her bed, Haruhi was enjoying the warmth of the covers. As soon as they had gotten her back, Tamaki had forced her to take a warm bath and then to go straight to bed afterwards. Now, she was trying to get some sleep, but every time she drifted asleep, the nightmares that she had been having would appear to come. Settling upon a fringed sleep, she closed her eyes and allowed her lips to part slightly. Once she felt perfectly at peace, she heard the door to her room open and someone placed something on the nightstand.

Tamaki went over to her and place his hand on her forehead causing her eyes to open and stare at him. "Do you feel warm?" Tamaki asked and received a nod of yes. "Then can I feel your belly? Kyoya said I must make sure your skin is warm."

"Yes," she said.

Slipping his hand under the covers, his hand quickly went towards her belly and slipped under her pajama shirt. Once his hand brushed against her skin, she shivered, but didn't do anything knowing that he wouldn't remove his hand until he knew she was warm or at least her skin was. After for what seemed like forever, he removed his hand from her belly and then with both hands, raised her into a sitting position. Making her lean against him, Tamaki arranged the pillows on the bed before draping the green blanket around her shoulders and letting her lean against the newly arranged pillows.

"I brought you something to eat," said Tamaki placing a plate of food into her hands.

Haruhi looked down at the plate and about half of the food on it was food she could not even pronounce the name of it while the other half was Japanese food. As she continued to look at the food, her mouth watered knowing that it all probably would be good tasting. "Thank you," she said as she continued to look at the food on her plate.

"I place a fork and chopsticks on the nightstand," said Tamaki as he watched her look at the food. "Once you're done, get some rest."

She nodded and then reached to grab the chopsticks sitting on the nightstand before she began to eat. Once she ate a few bites, Tamaki left her to be and once she finished, she placed the plate on the nightstand before laying back down in the bed and pulling the covers up around her. Within minutes, sleep claimed her and her thoughts were not thinking about the nightmares she had been having.

* * *

When Tamaki had gotten up in the middle of the night for a glass of water, he noticed that Haruhi was sitting up in bed and slipped into her room, gently sitting down on the bed. "Haruhi," he called to her softly gaining her attention making him noticed that she was scared. "What's the matter?"

"Senpai, why are you up?" She asked.

"I was getting a glass of water, but I saw you. Tell me what's the matter," he said somewhat more commandingly.

"You don't have to worry about me, senpai. It was just a nightmare."

"A nightmare? How long have you been awake?" Tamaki asked become far more serious than what he had been earlier.

She glanced at the clock and sighed. "Awhile."

"Let me get you some water and then we can talk," said Tamaki before leaving before she could speak.

Upon his return, she drank the glass of water quickly and after much persuasion from him, she told him about her nightmare being about how everyone she knew was gone. "...These nightmares have been plaguing me for awhile, but this month...they have gotten worser," she said pausing to fiddle with the glass in her hands. "I can't get back to sleep afterward."

Tamaki wrapped his arms around her and began to rub her back. "I can help with getting back to sleep, but you will have to ask Kyoya about taking care of your nightmares," said Tamaki.

"Then can you sleep with me tonight?" She asked.

"Yes," said Tamaki pulling away and taking the glass from her hands before putting it on the table.

She then hugged Tamaki and let go him before he helped her get settled under the blankets. Once she was settled, he slipped under the top most blankets and kept a few blankets between him and Haruhi. Then he placed an arm around her and began to rub her back again causing her to go back asleep. After seeing her asleep, he was able to fall asleep.

* * *

The shadow king was waking up from the bed he had been sleeping in and looked across the hall to Haruhi's room to see Tamaki sliding out from the covers and leaving the room. Taking a curiosity to why Tamaki had been sleeping with Haruhi, Kyoya rosed from his bed and went to follow Tamaki to the kitchen. Once behind his best friend, Kyoya smiled the devilish grin that earned him the title of the shadow king. "Tamaki, why were you sleeping with Haruhi?" Kyoya asked causing Tamaki to jump in the air.

"K-k-kyoua, it was nothing! I was only sleeping with her because she was having nightmares and I was only under the top covers with the bottom covers between me her!" Tamaki said waving his hands in front of him.

"Is that so?"

"Yes, mon ami!" **(AN: Ignore the line below. Somehow it's showing up and I don't know why.)**

* * *

"I wont help her with her nightmares until she asks, but hopefully by the new year, the nightmares are not causing her as much trouble as they did this year," said Kyoya pushing his glasses up to cause them to glint. "I'll let you get going on making breakfast for her and the rest of us."

When everyone left leaving Tamaki with Haruhi, he helped her pack and giving her strict orders to pick out an outfit that for Friday that didn't make her look like a guy as per Kyoya's orders. Once done packing, the two left for Tamaki's place and were greeted by Yuzuru, who informed them that lunch was being fixed. After the maid took Haruhi's things, Tamaki lead her to the room with piano in it. He then told her to wait for him and then left her. Trying to not think about what Tamaki was going to do, Haruhi looked around the room.

When he returned, she didn't noticed him until he tapped her on the shoulder and shoved a wrapped box into her hands. "I got this in America," said Tamaki. "Open it! Open it, please!"

Putting up little resistance, she unwrapped the box to find it to be just that, but once she opened the box, she was surprised. Inside was a little snow globe of several animals and holding it was a stuff bear with an expression that wasn't blank that rested next to a stuff eagle. Picking up the snow globe, she carefully looked at it taking in its appearance. It was quite a large snow globe and had to be so for the figures inside of it were quite numerous. There was seven figures in it and they were all animals: a bear, two identical cat, a raccoon, a small lion, a St. Bernard, a penguin. "Where did you get this?" Haruhi asked quietly.

"My roommate in America suggested to me a place that makes custom snow globes. I thought you would like one that reminded you of everyone. The stuff bear and eagle seemed to fit. Eh...," Tamaki trailed off as he began to scratch his head, "I was thinkin' that since you can't get back to sleep after your nightmares maybe the snow globe would help you get back to sleep once you see." **(AN: Ignore line below.)**

* * *

"Thank you," she replied as she continued to look at the snow globe.

When Friday morning had come, Haruhi had gotten dressed in what she had chosen on Christmas Day. As she was getting dress, she was thinking about how Christmas day had went. Thinking back, she remembered how delicious that lunch and dinner was and how Yuzuru had snapped a picture of them sitting next to each other while they were both finishing their meal. However, what she had remembered far more than the food was the how well she was able to sleep because for once her nightmares didn't keep her awake and it was all thanks to Tamaki's gifts that he bought in America.

Fully dressed, she walked out of the room and Tamaki lead her to Kyoya's car that was waiting for her and Tamaki. When she sat down, she was surprised Kyoya looked fully awake and not looking like the demon that she had been told about. "Good morning, you two," said Kyoya to both of them before fixating his eyes onto Haruhi. "I actually been spending a lot of time getting this ready, Haruhi. So you better have fun."

"Really what is it?"

"I actually was able to track down your maternal grandparents," said Kyoya as he smirked upon seeing Haruhi's shocked expression. "It will be awhile before we get there. So, you are more than welcome to sleep on the way there."

Haruhi nodded and without thinking about it, leaned against Tamaki before eventually fell asleep.

* * *

Looking at the modest house that stood before, Haruhi couldn't believe she was going to be seeing her grandparents from her mother's side of the family. All that she could remember about them was their appearance back then and her grandfather's hearty laughter. Taking careful steps towards the house, she tried to remember what they were like when she had last seen them. As she approached the door and prepared herself to knock, she remembered when she last saw them, it had been a year and a half since her mother's death. Knocking on the door softly, she brought her hand back to her side and waited.

She heard a muffle voice from behind the door and immediately looked down like a scared little dog. "You're here!" An elderly woman's voice cried out causing Haruhi to look up. "You do look a lot like your mother at your age."

"H-hello," said Haruhi before the woman pulled her into a gentle hug.

"If I heard about you're father's death sooner, I would've made sure that me and your grandpa could've been by your side with all your nice male friends," said the woman before pulling back. "Come in, Haruhi. Grandpa is waiting for you. We would love to hear about how you made such nice male friends."

Haruhi merely nodded and followed her grandma into the house taking off her shoes out of habit.

* * *

Eating dinner with her grandma and grandpa was an experience that Haruhi had forgotten and after so long, it was something that she was enjoying. She had spent the whole day with them talking about the past and for the first time, when she thought about her father, she didn't feel like she needed to cry. After dinner, her grandpa took her to look at photos from long ago and it stirred up old memories for her that she had long ago forgotten.

Then her grandma read to her from some books like she had done the last time they had seen each other. As it grew closer to them part, Haruhi exchanged phone numbers with them and promised to call them. "Kiddo, you better come back and visit," her grandpa said after she put the phone number into her phone.

"I will. I'll thank Kyoya for finding you, grandpa," said Haruhi as she looked up from her phone.

He went over and hugged her. "We were surprised when your glasses-wearing friend showed up," he said into her ear. "Once we heard about what happened, we were more than willing to go along with his plan."

"Thank you," she said as she hugged back before pulling away to allow for her grandma to say her goodbyes.

"Haruhi," her grandma started as she held out a book-sized package towards her, "open this when you are alone. I think you should like it."

Haruhi took the package and bowed, but her grandma stopped her and gave her a hug. "I'll try to visit on the weekends," she said as she tried to step away from her grandma knowing she needed to go.

"If you can't making it to visit, at least call us," said her grandma.

"I'll try," said Haruhi. "I should get going. Kyoya really isn't the type to wait forever."

"Goodbye," said her grandma.

"Maybe next time you will bring those boys that just happen to be your friends," said her grandpa.

"That wouldn't be much trouble. Mei is the only other friend I have," Haruhi said as she slipped her shoes on. "I'll try to visit within a month."

"Okay, sweetie," said her grandma. "Just let us know when you will come over and we can bake something together."

"That should be fun," said Haruhi as she opened the front door. "See you later."

* * *

It was New Years Day and tonight was the last that Haruhi was staying with Tamaki. In the middle of the afternoon, they had been eating traditional New Year's food when Yuzuru came upon them. "Tamaki, would you write something for your mother? I happen to have a chance to send her something in secret and it will be sent tomorrow," said Yuzuru.

"Really?!" Tamaki spoke.

Yuzuru nodded his head yes. Haruhi looked at Tamaki and knew it would probably be smart for him to take the opportunity. "Senpai, you really should do it."

"You're right. I should," said Tamaki before turning towards Haruhi. "Haruhi, would you like to help me?"

"Why would you need help with writing a letter to your own mother?!"

"Oh, I was thinking about teaching you some French," said Tamaki somewhat down-casted.

"All right, senpai."

"Thank you, thank you," said Tamaki before turning to look at Yuzuru. "When do you need?"

"After dinner tonight."

"Let's go, Haruhi," said Tamaki as he tugged her out of the room.

* * *

"I wonder," said Yuzuru quietly to himself, "if he will tell Anne through his letter that he has found a girl that he loves."

Tamaki looked over to the couch where he had placed Haruhi on when she had fallen asleep against his arm (he was concerned that her nightmares were giving her trouble again) before looking back at his letter to his mother written in French. Giving the letter a close eye once again, he read it.

_Mother, I'm doing fine in Japan and I'm college now. I went to study in America for awhile, but I came back to Japan to complete my studies. Everything has changed with me and my friends. Of all of my friends, one friend has been having it rough since waking up from a coma because her dad had died before she had woken up. Haruhi (that's her name) has been doing quite fine, but I worry about her because she is now having these nightmares and those nightmares had caused her to get sick. At least, in college she has been doing as good as she did in high school, but this coming semester she will be taking on a heaver course load. I hope you are doing okay._

Satisfy with it, Tamaki signed the letter and placed it in an envelope. Then he rose to his feet and walked over to Haruhi before sitting in front of the couch to watch her sleep. When Shima came into the room a few minutes later, he nodded and then shook Haruhi awake. "Dinner is ready," said Tamaki as he helped the now awake Haruhi to her feet.

"Did you finish it?" She asked.

"Oui."

"Hopefully she will like it," said Haruhi taking an interest in the floor to the right of her.

"Now don't get all glum on me. I won't accept it if you get all sad and I know you are sad because you do that whenever you want to cry, but others are around. And because of that, I'll do this," Tamaki ended before glomping her.

"Senpai, I really don't need your pity," Haruhi said after pushing him away just enough for her to breath.

"But you do! I shouldn't ignore your feelings! You're my friend," said Tamaki mental wincing thinking about them being 'just friends.'

Haruhi couldn't stay mad at him, but she did wince mental at the word 'friend' for she was hoping that this new year would bring about a new dimension to their friendship. "If you must, then...," she said.

"Now that's the spirit. Let's go eat dinner then," Tamaki smiling widely back at her as he gently took her hand and lead her the dinning room.

* * *

Tamaki was exiting the office of one of his TA's in mid-February. Haruhi's birthday had past and he as well as the other former club members did not get her gifts, telling her that helping her was their gift to her. Sighing, Tamaki began to walk off campus to go find Haruhi in the café that she frequented after her classes were done. As he grew closer to the café, a woman suddenly came running from the direction he was going towards. "There's a bunch of men beating a college student!" The woman yelled.

Tamaki's eyes widen as the words brought him to a halt. Only one college student would be in that direction and that was Haruhi. Pulling out his phone and speed dialing Kyoya was the first things he did before he took off running. "What do you want Tamaki?" Kyoya asked over the phone upon answering.

"Kyoya, Haruhi might be in danger. Could you send someone to the location I am running towards?"

"The café? You better be right about this," growled Kyoya slightly over the phone.

"Yes. I let you go. I'm almost there...HARUHI!" Tamaki yelled upon seeing Haruhi being beaten by several thugs as he dropped his cell phone before running towards her and throwing his body over her.

"S-senpai," she said shakily.

"You'll be all right. I called Kyoya," said Tamaki as he ignored the pain that he was now receiving in the place of Haruhi.

She nodded and curled up into ball causing her head to brush up against his chest. Scared, she tried to remain calm, but worry about Tamaki who was protecting her over took scared and calm. When silence came, neither moved until their names were called. "Tamaki-sama, Haruhi-sama," called a man.

Tamaki looked up first and saw Hota, one of Kyoya's bodyguards, and noticed the thugs were in handcuffs. Realizing that they were safe, Tamaki fainted and his body fell on top of Haruhi, but Hota came over and took Tamaki off of her before laying him on his back on the ground. Shaking, Haruhi could only stare at Tamaki and didn't noticed when someone draped another coat around her body until the person knelt in front of her and zipped it up. "Kyo...," she began, but didn't finish because Kyoya placed a finger against her lips to stop her.

"Don't talk. There will be plenty of time to talk about what happened later," said Kyoya before sighing. "Somehow something isn't jiving with this situation. There's something missing... Remind me later to tell you everything."

She nodded and tried to look over Kyoya's shoulder to see Tamaki, but Kyoya made sure he blocked most of her view of him, only allowing her to see his face. As they stayed there, Hota came over to them. "Kyoya-sama, the ambulance is only a block away," said Hota.

"Thank you," said Kyoya before directing his attention to Haruhi. "I won't come with you. I have some things to do, but I'll make sure that the hospital knows that you wouldn't mind having Tamaki in the same room as you." He unzipped the coat he put on her and slipped it off before laying it on the ground. "The others know and I've contacted your grandparents to let them know. They will come if you want them."

"Kyoya-sama," someone said, "can you lay her on the stretcher?"

"I'll leave you in this man's hands," said Kyoya as he took Haruhi and laid her down on the stretcher. "Don't fret about Tamaki. He will be okay." Then Kyoya gave her a rare genuine smile. "See you later, Haruhi."

* * *

Kyoya was massaging his temples as he sat in Haruhi's room waiting for her to become fully awake from the surgery to repair some internal damage. Sighing, he glanced over at her before returning back to his thoughts about the current situation. What he had learned in the past hour was shocking and half of it, he couldn't believe it. He could believe that Yuzuru was very suspicious about his mother ever since the day that Haruhi had entered that two year long coma and was keeping his mother and Haruhi from crossing paths. Letting out another sigh, he looked over at Haruhi and noticed her eyes were open. "Where's Tamaki-senpai?" She asked softly.

"He's still in surgery. The others are waiting with Yuzuru for word of the surgery ending," said Kyoya as he pushed up his glasses. "Yuzuru is not very trusting of his mother for awhile."

"Why?"

"I wish I knew why, but it is connected to you some how," said Kyoya leaning in his chair.

"What did you want me to remind you about?"

"The details of your father's death. He did not die of natural causes. My private police force is handling the investigation. I have been keeping it as quite as possible because something seemed fishy," said Kyoya, mentally adding '_and it might have been a fake death_.' "I will go tell the others you are awake. Hopefully, I won't be too long, but I will try to get back soon. Rest up now, if you want to see Tamaki," said Kyoya as he stood up. "Anything you need?"

"No," said Haruhi before Kyoya left her alone.

* * *

When Kyoya had come back, her grandma, the twins, Honey, and Mori had come with him bringing news that Tamaki was out of surgery. As they were all waiting in her room, one of the doctors that had seen when she first awaken from her coma had entered the room and shooed out all the guys. Once he began talking, she was glad that he had shooed them out because he was talking to her about certain feminine things that should be happening to her since she awoken from her coma, but hadn't. When he finished after telling her that she would be taking medicine for it, she told him not tell her friends and he agreed to it before leaving and letting the guys come back in.

When they reentered the room, she had already closed her eyes and was trying to sleep, so they were unable to get anything out of her. About a half hour later, Yuzuru came up to room and sat down on a chair on the other side of the room. He let out a sigh and everyone turned to look at except for Haruhi, who could only turn her head towards him. "Why are you not very trusting of your mother?" Kyoya directed at Yuzuru.

"Mother-baka has jumped into the deep end. I think she is insane," said Yuzuru.

"How long then?"

"A little more than two years, almost three years."

Kyoya looked over at Haruhi and saw that she noticed the same connection. "It looks like I was right about saying things didn't jive together," said Kyoya.

"What are you talking about, Kyoya?" Kaoru asked.

"There is way too many events that seem not connected, but are. I'm going to see what my private police force got out of those thugs," said Kyoya before walking towards the door. "Tell Tamaki, when he's awake, that I'm not going to see him today."

"What else are you going to do, Kyoya?" Hikaru asked.

"I'm going to see if my hunch is correct," said Kyoya before exiting the room.

"I wonder what Kyo-chan's hunch is," said Honey.

"I wouldn't know," said Kaoru.

"Can you guys wake me up when senpai is here?" Haruhi asked tiredness evident in her voice.

"We will," said Hikaru.

Haruhi closed her eyes and went to sleep as her friends watched her with sad eyes. As she was sleeping they were all thinking that she was having way too many bad things happen to her.

* * *

When Tamaki was rolled into the room, Haruhi was waking up from her nap and her friends and grandma were distracting her until the nurses had left the room except for one. The only nurse that remained came over to her bed. "If you would like to see your friend, you can, but he is sleeping," said the nurse to Haruhi.

"Can I?" She asked.

"You may, but your tall friend will carry you," said the nurse gesturing to Mori, "and I will be making sure that your IV doesn't get in the way of him walking."

Haruhi nodded in understanding and waited for Mori to pick her up. Once he picked her up, he, with the nurse beside him, walked over to Tamaki's bed. Yuzuru looked up at Haruhi and gave her a comforting smile before she looked down at Tamaki. When she saw him, she was taken back at what she saw. On his arms were little lines of stitches, but his face was perfect and angelic in a way. As he was sleeping, she knew that what she couldn't see, that which was covered by his gown and blankets, was probably far worse than what was on his arm. "Senpai," she said softly while badly wanting to touch him.

"He should be waking up within a few minutes. I will go get a chair so your friend can sit and you wait for him to wake up," said the nurse before leaving and returning with a chair.

Mori nodded to the woman and sat down in the chair. Once he sat down, she was able to keep looking at Tamaki and knowing he was not harmed from saving her made her happy. Within a few minutes, her grandma came over and said goodbye and that she would be back tomorrow. Once she left, Haruhi looked back at Tamaki, who was starting to wake up. "Look to your left, son," said Yuzuru as soon as Tamaki fully opened his eyes.

Doing as commanded, Tamaki turned his head to his left and his eyes widen upon seeing Haruhi. To him, she looked very worried and he was not happy that she had to worry about him. "I'm okay," he said softly.

"Thanks, senpai, for protecting me," said Haruhi pausing as she debated to continue, "...and for all those other times."

"You should get some rest," he said softly. "I need to sleep too."

Before Haruhi could get a word out, she felt out breath and almost like she couldn't breathe. Yuzuru noticed it and immediately got up to get a nurse while Mori tried to help her with her current problem. As soon as the nurse came in, she placed an oxygen mask on Haruhi and made Mori place her back in her own bed. "The doctor is coming down and is going to determine if you need to have us put you to sleep and put a breathing tube down your throat," said the nurse as calmly as possible, but it scared Haruhi.

"Shh... If they do put a tube down your throat, you will be sleeping through it and won't remember a thing," said Hikaru trying to calm Haruhi down somewhat which was achieved.

They waited and waited and once the doctor came in, they all knew what would happen next. The doctor said what they expected and told them that both had been poisoned through their injuries. Once the doctor spoke, everything went by in a blur for Haruhi before her vision faded to black.

* * *

When Haruhi became aware of her surroundings again, Tamaki was sitting beside her bed on one side and her grandma was sitting on the other. "How long?" She asked.

"Almost two weeks," her grandma responded before helping her sit so she could drink the water from the glass that Tamaki had for her.

"Ugh...why that long?"

"Your body wasn't responding to the antidote. An hour after they put you to sleep, they had to put me to sleep. Eight days, that was how long I was asleep for," said Tamaki as Haruhi took several sips from the glass of water.

"I'll go get a nurse," Haruhi's grandma said as she helped her lay back down before getting up. "Sweetie, just rest until the doctor comes to check on you."

When her grandma left, Haruhi looked at Tamaki and felt a huge joy at seeing him, but didn't show it. "Senpai, where are the others?" She asked.

"The doctors had limited how many could come and visit us. Kyoya said he would be coming today, but lately, once he is out of class, he is off investigating something or another. Everyone else has classes right at the moment."

"Have you heard any more about Kyoya's hunch?"

"He hasn't told me anything more about it," said Tamaki as the nurse and doctor came in.

The nurse helped Tamaki back to his bed while the doctor examine Haruhi before several nurses came in and moved their beds closer together. "Now, we moved your beds closer. So no getting out of bed to see the other," said the doctor. "You can only get out of bed with the nurses help. Any questions?"

"None," sad Haruhi.

"Then I will let your grandmother back in and make sure she knows to tell your friends that they can all come visit all at once," said the doctor before leaving.

* * *

That night Tamaki woke suddenly and looked over to Haruhi, in the dim light, to see her awake. "What's the matter?" He asked.

"A nightmare," she said.

"When was the last time you had one?"

"Before the end of January."

"That's good. Do you want to talk about it?"

Haruhi was about to nod, but realized he wouldn't see it. "Yes."

"Then I will listen."

Knowing that Tamaki was listening, Haruhi started to describe her dream in detail and once she reached the end of describing it, she was feeling better now that Tamaki had listened to her. She was able to go back to sleep after Tamaki had wished her to have pleasant dreams.

* * *

When Tamaki woke the next morning, he was happy to see that Haruhi was still sleeping. As he was watching Haruhi, a nurse came in and he asked her to do two things. One was to bring him a phone so he could call one of his friends and the other was to see if the doctor could help Haruhi with her nightmares that seemed to be so frequent. He waited for the nurse to come back with the phone and immediately called Kyoya to ask him to do bring somethings with him when he came to visit. After the phone call, the nurse, before leaving, told him that the doctor would come down and see her to talk about her nightmares.

An hour later, Kyoya came to visit and was carrying the stuff eagle and bear that Tamaki had given Haruhi on Christmas day. Tamaki gestured for Kyoya to put both stuff animals on Haruhi's bed, which Kyoya did before sitting down next to Tamaki. "So why did you ask me to bring those stuff animals?" Kyoya asked.

"They at least helped her with her nightmares. I told a nurse about her nightmares and the doctor will come and talk to her about them. Hopefully, he can help her from having them," said Tamaki. "How far are you with your hunch?"

"It is very unbelievable for people who haven't see it, but of us who witnessed it, it is believable," said Kyoya.

"What do you mean by that, mon ami?"

"All of us have been duped into believing he was dead," said Kyoya in a whisper. "I'm not 100 percent sure that is correct, but once I am, I will tell her."

"Ranka-san could be alive?" Tamaki said quietly before receiving a nod in confirmation. "Are you going to let her grandparents know?"

"At this moment, I will tell them when I see them next, but it will be a hint," said Kyoya keeping his voice down as to not to wake Haruhi up.

"That should be okay," said Tamaki as he turned his head to look at Haruhi.

Kyoya seeing his friend's concern for the girl. "She should be able to get through this," said Kyoya. "She has been handling everything pretty well. After they release her, I'm going to have her stay with her grandparents. Only you, me, and my bodyguards know where they live and I am hoping that it will be safer for her to live with them for awhile until I figure out what is all going on here."

"How much are you not telling us out of concern of being wrong about it?"

"About ninety percent, Tamaki," said Kyoya.

"Would it hurt to tell us?"

"I don't want to get anyone's hopes raised falsely. That's the last thing that needs to happen," said Kyoya before rising from his chair. "I need to use the restroom. So don't get too bored."

* * *

That night, Haruhi was sitting next to Tamaki's bed and was listening to him as he read the headlines from the newspaper. When he gave her the newspaper, she put it down on the nightstand next to his bed before picking up the instructions that the doctor had left for her. They were the instructions about how to get rid of her nightmares without medication.

"Do you want me to read them aloud to you?" Tamaki asked.

"No," said Haruhi as she began to read the instructions, but after a few minutes of reading, she turned to look at Tamaki. "Could you help me reminisce?"

"Yes. About what?"

"Anything positive."

Then Tamaki began a conversation about Mori and Hunny's graduation and how Mori had challenged Hunny to a fight. At some point, Haruhi's hand had ended up near Tamaki's and he had gently, without her noticing, took her much smaller hand into his and started rub his thumb against the back of it. By the end of their conversation, he had let go of her hand. "Did that help?" Tamaki asked.

"Yes, in helping me come up with a way to change my nightmare," said Haruhi before reading the instructions again. "Can you stay quite for awhile, senpai?"

"Sure, but why Haruhi?" He asked giving her that puppy dog pouting look on his face.

"It says I have to relax and not to think before doing the next part."

"Can I hold your hand?"

"No," she said firmly.

"Please?"

"No."

"Pretty please?" Now he was using those puppy eyes on her.

"Oh, all right," she said, unable to stand his puppy eyes, "but only for a minute."

He took her hand and rubbed it gently for the whole minute he was allowed before letting it go and watching her. Once she stood up, she said good night to him and walked over to her bed (the doctor given her permission to walk without aid). Then she fell asleep holding her bear and with her stuff eagle's wing lying on her head. That night she didn't have any nightmares.

* * *

Waking up, she remained lying in her futon and thought about things. It had been two months since she left the hospital. Two months since she saw Tamaki. Two months of sleeping and doing school work to fill her days.

During those two months, she had been staying at her grandparents, only getting emails informing her about her friends. Ever since she left the hospital and been unable to see Tamaki, she hadn't been eating properly and some nights, unable to focus enough before bed to ensure she had a good night of sleep without nightmares. Hearing footsteps tread across the tatami floor, she rolled over on to her stomach and pulled her top covers over her head. Assuming it was either her grandpa or grandma coming to force her to come eat breakfast, she was surprised when she did not hear her name called, but the person knelt beside her futon and pulled her into his arms. Keeping her eyes closed, she waited for the person to call her name as the person wrapped a blanket around her, her _green_ blanket.

Before she had a chance to open her eyes, a pair of lips placed themselves against hers and her eyes open in slight surprised, but closed once she saw it was Tamaki kissing her. She kissed back allowing all her worry for him to show bare to him and when he licked her lips, she allowed her lips to part for his tongue to enter. When they pulled apart, they were both breathing hard but had smiles on their faces, happy to be together again. "Will you eat breakfast today, ma amoura?" He asked her.

"As long as you are not going leave me," she said voicing her fears about him before noticing he had said something in French to her. "What did you called me?"

"I couldn't help it that I came down with an infection," he said. "Oh, that little thing slipped out of my mouth without me meaning to, but I do love you, ma amoura."

Haruhi's eyes widen and she threw herself at Tamaki, wrapping her arms around him tightly allowing all of the emotions she had for him to flow out. When Tamaki pushed her away gently and began to rub her cheeks, she realized that she had been crying, and he was looking at her with those sad eyes that were begging for her to answer his declaration of his love to her. "Tamaki, I don't know what to say," she said before leaning against him and resting her head on his shoulder.

"My love, ma amoura, I don't expect you to say it quite yet," said Tamaki before taking a breath and leaning his head against hers, "but what you have showed me is enough for me to know without those words."

"Thank you, Tamaki."

When Tamaki was about to give her a kiss to her forehead, her grandpa came in and dragged them to breakfast.

* * *

It had been one week since Tamaki had started to come over and visit her, and she had started to gain back the weight she had lost when she hadn't been eating properly. Now he was sitting with her, doing his school work while she did hers after they had breakfast with her grandparents (he had stayed the night before with her). Absorb in what they were doing, they didn't notice the angry footsteps that came into the room. "Tamaki, we've been all taken for fools by your insane grandmother," said a very awake Kyoya.

"What?" Tamaki responded.

"What do you mean, Kyoya-senpai?"

"That insane bat thought it would be fun to test some strange poison that cause someone _to appear to be dead_," Kyoya said after sitting down roughly on the floor.

"To appear to be dead? How can that be, mon ami?"

"There's a Japanese man in France who's blood was tested by my father's company to identify what was causing him to be so sick," said Kyoya before looking at Tamaki and mouthing some words to him. Tamaki understood and a place an arm behind Haruhi's back before nodding for him to continue. "Because the man didn't have his papers with him, I asked my father to run a DNA test on his blood after all the other tests were done. It matched up with your dad's DNA, Haruhi."

"Are you sure?" Haruhi asked quite shocked.

Kyoya nodded. "I was able to get in contact with the doctor that was treating him in France to tell me who he was with. I contacted the person he is staying with and I was pleasantly to find it was Anne-Sophie. She told me the one thing that gave me confirmation of his identity," said Kyoya pausing. "When shown a picture of the host club, he pointed us out by name and referred to you as his daughter."

Instead of crying, what Kyoya and Tamaki expected her to do, she got up and hugged Kyoya. "Thank you for finding him," she said softly to him. "When can we see him?"

"He is still very weak and won't be able for quite some time to return to Japan, but for the next break, we will be going to France," said Kyoya as he returned the hug. "Also, I'm giving you one of my guards to protect you when you come back to our district. He will only be around when you are outside of the guest house without any of us around."

"Thank you," she said once again before going back to sit with Tamaki.

"He's with my mom?"

"Yes, Tamaki," said Kyoya as Tamaki's eyes lit up. "I've talked to your father, and it appears that he also knows about her house guest and is going to be helping us."

"Isn't this great, Haruhi? We get to go to France," said Tamaki as he glomped Haruhi.

She allowed him to hold her while she took in the warmth of his arms around her, not caring that Kyoya would take an interest in her actions. "It is," she said softly.

"Will you be coming back to our side of town today?" Kyoya asked as he raised an eyebrow upon seeing Haruhi accepting his embrace.

"I want to go back this weekend," said Haruhi as she looked at Kyoya by turning her head for Tamaki still had her in an embrace.

"Then I will have the bodyguard meet you when you get there. I think I've chosen someone who should work very well with you," said Kyoya as he got up. "I am going to tell your grandparents this."

Kyoya then left, and once he was out of earshot, Tamaki pulled Haruhi closer, causing a soft giggle to escape her lips. "Haruhi," he said, his breath lacing through her hair, "would you like for me to get your mother's shrine out of storage?"

She only nodded yes, and Tamaki began to rub her back and continued to do so until she pulled out of his arms to return to what she was doing before Kyoya came: schoolwork. Tamaki, knowing that she wanted to do her schoolwork, got up to go to the kitchen to get something to drink and maybe a cookie (which was backed yesterday by her and her grandma) for himself. Smiling as he went, he felt happy that Haruhi was not without her dad any more.

* * *

After meeting her guard, a young, but skilled woman, she and Tamaki entered the guest house, and he gently led her to a corner of the living where her mother's shrine had been moved to. At first, Tamaki had to force her to sit down, but once she sat down, he didn't leave her, but sat down beside her before lighting some incense. As soon as the incense he had lit was finished, he got up and leaned down far enough so he could whisper into her ear. "I'm going to leave you for a little while to get dinner for the both of us. I'll leave you here for two hours," whispered Tamaki into her ear. "I'll call you if I will be later."

She merely nodded before allowing herself to become absorb in her thoughts and not noticing that Tamaki had left. As her thoughts became more concrete, she finally decided to voice those thoughts softly to her mother's picture having forgotten what it was like to talk to her mother daily, albeit it was only a picture. "Mom, how have you been? I've been fine for a few months, but before that someone tried to kill me and even before that...I had been in a coma for two years," she started, but soon grew softer.

"I don't know how to tell you all that has happened, but my friends had thought they had witnessed dad's death, but Kyoya-senpai, a few days ago told us, me and Tamaki, that he wasn't dead, but in France with Tamaki's mother, alive and well. Ah, about Tamaki, I don't feel a need to call him senpai any more. Even though I read dad's writings about how he fell in love with you and your black journal that grandma gave me (Kyoya-senpai, concerned about me, tracked down grandpa and grandma), I am not fully sure about my feelings regarding Tamaki. I don't feel like I can tell them. About dad, Kyoya says he was poisoned and taken to France, eventually he ended up with Tamaki's mother and she was able to get him the care he needed for that poison."

For a few moments, she stayed silent as she lit a stick of incense. "I wish you could tell me how to handle life now. I was so worried about Tamaki (he had protected me) that I didn't feel like eating, but when I tried, nothing tasted good to me. It was like how breakfast didn't taste good to me back then. I was so worried about Tamaki that I felt like I wanted to cry," she spoke as the incense continued to burn and finally felt immensely happy with the burden off her chest. As she stood up to go to the kitchen, she thought that maybe she should've asked for Tamaki to get her mother's shrine out of storage.

* * *

Waking up with a start from a nightmare, Haruhi almost fell off the couch and had to look around until she remembered was at Tamaki's mother's place in France. When she saw Tamaki walking into the room, she felt more relaxed and not as scared. "How are you feeling?" He asked.

"Better than earlier, but that nightmare is not going away," she said. "Thank you for waking up that one time on the plane."

"It was alright. You needed me and besides being on a plane is probably a scary experience for the first time. I still can't believe we are here because of Kyoya and my dad. I wish Grandmother didn't have to do the things she did. I hope she will realize the error of her ways," said Tamaki. "My mom informed me that your dad is still sleeping. Do you need me to help you get back to sleep?"

"Hold me," she commanded.

He smiled and went over to her and picked her up before sitting back down, cradling her in his arms. "Now go to sleep and if your dad wakes up before you, I will carry you up to him so you can wake up next to him," he said as he brushed her bangs away before kissing her forehead as her eyes slipped closed.

* * *

Hearing Kyoya's voice telling about things that had happened within the past year, Tamaki waited anxiously, but upon looking at Haruhi, lightly sleeping in his arms, he smiled and his anxiousness disappeared. When Kyoya walked out, he pushed Tamaki into the room, and Tamaki was left to gaze at the man that was once was a cross-dresser and was in shock at the man's appearance before him.

Long hair, now short, looked liked it had been butchered and not cut. His body was slightly on the skinny side and his face looked far more older than when Tamaki had last saw. However, he still looked lik a very feminine man and that was one thing that proved to Tamaki that this was Ryouji "Ranka" Fujioka. "Ryouji-san, it's good to see you," Tamaki greeted before walking further into the room.

"Lay her down here," he said patting the space beside him.

Tamaki nodded and laid Haruhi down on the bed before sitting on the edge of the bed. Ryouji laid his hand on her hair, but she shunned in her light sleep, moving closer to Tamaki. Again, Ryouji tried to touch her, but this time on her shoulder and all he received was her turning over on to her side with her back facing against him. Nevertheless, Tamaki picked her up and moved her closer to Ryouji. Once he sat her down, Tamaki placed his hand on the top of her head and nodded towards Ryouji.

Understanding the nod, Ryouji wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to be against his chest. The contact with his chest caused her to stir and try to get away from him, but Tamaki ruffled her hair causing her to open her eyes, fully awake and aware. "Tamaki-senpai?" Haruhi questioned him, resorting to using the honorific to make sure know one had a clue about what she truly thought about Tamaki, especially the man that seemed unfamiliar, but had his arms wrapped around her.

"I'm sure you will enjoy it better if you look at who is holding you," Tamaki said smiling at her.

Understanding his smile, she closed her eyes and turned around in the arms that were wrapped around her. Although she was scared at what she would see, she opened her eyes and saw her father. Trying to convince herself that this was him for real, her eyes scanned him and took in all of his features. "Dad," she said softly. "How are you?"

"Fine," he said, "but I want to know what you've been up to since I last heard about you back in January."

Haruhi sat up on the bed and with Tamaki's help, help her father to sit up on the bed. Once he was sitting up, he dragged her into a hug that she resisted to some degree, but quit resisting once Tamaki discreetly took hold of her hand and stroked it with his thumb. As soon as he released her, Haruhi began to tell him all that had happened since she had awakened from her coma, glossing over a few parts about her and Tamaki. When she completed her tale, he told them about he ended up in the care of Tamaki's mother.

As soon as he finished, her dad launched himself at her and pulled her into a bone-crushing hug. Still feeling like her dad's touch wasn't his touch, her hand searched out for Tamaki's, and he gladly offered it to her, giving her hand a light squeezed. With Tamaki's hand holding her hand and stroking it with his thumb, she relaxed enough that her dad's warmth and Tamaki's warm hand were making her drowsy. Giving into the drowsiness, she fell asleep in her dad's arms, and the last hazy thought she had as Tamaki removed his hand from hers was a wish for Tamaki to keep his hand where it was.

* * *

She bolted straight up, scared out of sleep by a nightmare, in her sleeping bag that Tamaki's mom had given her so that she could sleep in the same room as her dad. Looking over to the wall that Tamaki was sleeping next, Haruhi debated whether it was worthwhile on both of their parts for her to wake him up. Glancing to the bed, she was glad her dad was still there, remembering how in her nightmare that she was trying to grab him, but he kept slipping away out of her reach. Sighing, she wished she had remembered to bring her stuff animals, no matter how embarrassing they were, because they would've been able to help her get back to sleep.

"Haruhi?"

She looked back at Tamaki, who was sitting up in his own sleeping bag, looking at her with concern. "Did I wake you up?" She asked.

"No," said Tamaki as he got up and came to sit beside her. "Was it another nightmare?"

"Only nightmares of," she said before glancing at the bed, hoping that Tamaki would get it, "are the ones that have never stopped."

"Why don't you sleep with him? He's your father, so he won't mind," suggested Tamaki.

"It won't work. I'm still not use to his touch," she said pausing, "but I can handle it if I can feel you."

"Then I'll risk his wrath for you if that's what you want."

"Thank you, sen--Tamaki," she said as she hugged him.

Tamaki smiled and kissed her forehead before picking her up and starting to walk towards the bed, but before he got there, he was stopped in his tracks by Ryouji eying them. "What are you two doing up?" He asked glaring at Tamaki.

"Eh, Haruhi, you should ask him," said Tamaki as he looked away from Ryouji's glare.

Relenting, she turned her head around so that she wasn't speaking into Tamaki's chest, laying one ear on his chest to hear his calming heartbeat. "Dad, can we sleep with you?" She asked hesitantly before adding, "Tamaki will be sleeping on top of the covers, if that would change anything."

Ryouji regarded the two with a careful eye, knowing something had defiantly changed (his daughter's dropping of the honorific in regards to Tamaki tipped him off about the change). Remembering the problem with touching his daughter from earlier, he decided that it was probably in his best interests for him to allow both of them to sleep on his bed and as long as the insect was sleeping on top he would allow it. "He better be sleeping on top," he said before scooting to one section of bed (it was king size) and lifting up the covers so that Tamaki could place Haruhi under them.

Understanding that the man accepted it, Tamaki walked over and placed Haruhi on the bed before helping Ryouji to cover her up. Once she was covered, he laid down on top of bed, and before he could get situated, Haruhi pulled him closer as she scooted closer to her dad, who began petting her hair (she really didn't feel like getting away from the touch because she was holding on to Tamaki's hand). Soon, she fell asleep, and the two beside her were happy that she was sleeping. "What caused her to wake up in the first place?" Ryouji whispered to Tamaki.

"Nightmare. She has been able to handle it pretty well on her own using the technique the doctor told her," said Tamaki as he began to stroke her hand that was holding his. "Tonight she told me for the first time that you are her nightmares that have never stopped."

"Did she say why she doesn't accept my touch?"

"No, but she did say that she wanted me to be near her. I think I know why she shivered in your arms when she was lightly sleeping. I removed my hand from hers."

"I don't want her to leave me until she is able to not have someone else touches her when I am."

"We should get to sleep. Maybe Kyoya might know why."

"Kyoya always knows."

The two men then closed their eyes and fell asleep with a hand a piece touching Haruhi as she slept. Not until the end of the week, they would know that Haruhi had finally had her last nightmare for the rest of her life.

* * *

**This is a little bit longer just because I realized you guys deserved an extra long chapter for not updating in awhile. I will probably post a short chapter about how Ryouji gets back to Japan and maybe in that chapter, a scene with him and the rest of the host club talking about Haruhi and Tamaki, while aforementioned couple is not around. **

**The final chapter will take the plot up to a year and a little more beyond that and will have some more interesting events in it besides finishing up everything in France. **

**Also, I was looking back at the first chapter and realized that I probably will need to do some editing with that first chapter because I found somethings that people probably noticed. I'll probably edit it as practice for my exam in my editing class.**


	4. Back to Japan

**Back To Japan**

**AN: I had posted this up on Archive of Our Own during the time when was down. Since no one had reviewed it over there, I decided to post it up here, but I'm thinking about adding a special chapter that will only be on Archive of Our Own. More info will be in the next chapter which will probably be up some time in August...maybe sooner or later.**

Upon waking up the morning after he had to share his bed with his daughter (who couldn't stand his touch for some reason without the insect in reach), he left his bed without disturbing the two on it and went downstairs, taking periodic breaks. Once he reached the kitchen, he slumped into an empty chair, head bowed waiting for food. Once breakfast was placed in front of him with a cup of coffee, he took notice of the boys that were surrounding him. Each one seemed to be planing something or had been discussing something with the others. "What are you boys up to?" He asked.

"We were discussing the two upstairs," said Kyoya putting down his notebook that he was looking through.

"And what about them?" He asked again.

"We know they are close," said Hikaru.

"But we don't know if they have admitted it to the other," said Kaoru picking up for his brother.

"He was the only one that she told about her nightmares," said Kyoya pushing up his glasses up before he looked at everyone. "Out of all of us, Tamaki has been the only one able to comfort her with most the success."

"And Haru-chan lost all that weight during that time," said Honey before stabbing a piece of pancake covered in a chocolate hazelnut spread.

"My daughter lost weight?" He asked the boys.

"Yes," said Mori, softly.

"I told you about her attack," said Kyoya, and he continued on after Ryouji nodded. "She happened to be released before Tamaki was, and fearing for her safety, I sent her to her grandparents. None of us were able to visit her on the other side of town, but I checked in a couple times and learned that she wasn't eating properly. When Tamaki was able to visit her, she ate breakfast for the first time in a long while."

"What else about her and the insect?"

Kyoya sighed and picked up his notebook before turning to a particular page. "Tamaki has had the most luck with getting her distracted during thunderstorms. He has spent the most time with her. He knows her limits of concentration better than the rest of us."

"Limits of concentration?"

"Although it looks like she is fully okay, Haruhi does have some concentration problems that are the result from what she has been through," said Kyoya as he looked at his notebook. "I told her that she will have problems because of the head injury that she had, but I didn't tell her the extent of them. I wanted her to learn those boundaries so that she can learn to deal with them herself."

"Is there anything else I need to know?"

"Well," said Kyoya as he flipped to a new page, "I wrote down everything that the doctors told me, and they have told me things that we need to watch for because I had informed them about her dedication to her goals. At this moment," he paused and flipped to another page, "the thing we need to be most worried about her is her being under too much stress. That's what I'm worried about most because I'm sure she has been under stress because she has been trying to make up for those two years."

"Haru-chan wouldn't be Haru-chan if she didn't study, Kyo-chan," said Honey trying to release the tension in the room.

"I guess so," said Kyoya closing his notebook again and leaning back in his chair. "However, Tamaki has told me some interesting things."

Ryouji raised his eyebrows and looked at Kyoya. "Interesting things?"

"I don't know if any of you will understand this, but I will tell you any way," said Kyoya pushing his glasses back up his nose. "Tamaki has been able to get Haruhi to tell him almost everything that Hikaru and Kaoru has told us about that day _after_ he had played the piano for her."

"She remembers all of that?" Hikaru asked looking up from his food.

"Isn't that bad she remembers?" Kaoru asked.

"It would be bad if she does remember, but I have talked to her about that day in question and have only one conclusion about those memories," said Kyoya before pausing and looking at everyone at the table. "Those memories are very jumbled up because of how her brain remembers them because of the injury that she suffered. She must be completely calmed and relaxed but not sleepy for her to remember them clearly. Tamaki has confirmed that this state is how she is when he played the piano and was able to recount the events more clearly."

"Haruhi...," Ryouji trailed off slightly before continuing, "she can't stand my touch."

"Oh? She isn't able to tolerate your touch?" Kyoya asked.

"Yes," he said sadly.

"Recently, I had my brothers look over her records," said Kyoya before opening his laptop and starting to mess with it. "They have told me that there was a couple of things that they don't understand about the medicines that was being given to her while she was in her coma. I asked her doctor why they were given, but he was able to tell me that he hadn't ordered those medicines to be give to her. Currently, my private police force is trying to find the paper trail that is very well hidden about who ordered those medicines to be given to her.

"The medicines given to her would have made it impossible for her to show that she was in awareness. Coma patients tend to gradually wake up and not wake up all at once, which she didn't, but the medicines that were given to her could explain that."

"Kyoya-senpai, why are you telling us this when he told you about her not being able to have him touch her?" Kaoru asked.

"All shall be made clear, Kaoru," said Kyoya before turning attention to Ryouji. "Do you remember that day when you had collapsed while holding her hand?"

"I do. I don't think I let go of it too gent-is that why she isn't accepting my touch?" He replied back.

"That's my assumption because it would make sense for that to be the case. The only way you probably can get her to not associate your touch with pain will need you to get Tamaki's help to get her in that state that is needed for any of those jumbled memories to be remembered," said Kyoya. "If Tamaki will help you, I will probably be able to tell you what you need to do for her."

"What are you guys talking about that is involving me?" Tamaki asked as he entered the room.

"You are the only one who can fix our little problem," said Kyoya as he pushed up his glasses. "As I told the others, Haruhi was given some medicines that impeded her from waking up or showing the typical signs that a coma patient should show during the waking up process."

"Mon ami, what's your point?" Tamaki asked as he looked at Kyoya from behind him.

"Tamaki, she probably has more memories that she isn't fully aware of, and one of those memories is needed to be recalled," said Kyoya.

"You want me to get her to remember those memories," said Tamaki.

"Yes. Since you have the most luck out all of us of getting her to open up about these things," said Kyoya.

"I'll do it," said Tamaki before he sat down at the empty chair.

"Good. Then there will be a few things you need to know," said Kyoya as he closed his laptop and turned his focus on his best friend. "You will need to give her feedback to help her be able to make sense of these memories because time gaps will be between these memories." Kyoya then turned his eyes onto Ryouji before continuing. "When she talks about that specific memory, you need to touch her then and be gentle about it because your touch will be disassociated from the memory."

"Kyo-chan, if Haru-chan was given medicine to keep her in a coma, then wouldn't she probably have awaken sooner?" Honey asked.

"That probably would've happen, but I don't know how earlier it could have been for her to awaken," said Kyoya as he looked at Tamaki. "Tamaki, when we get back to Japan, my brothers will have the full report about what medicines she was given during her coma and their effects."

"I would like know as well," said Ryouji.

"I will probably give you a summary of it," said Kyoya before writing something in his notebook.

"Haru-chan probably would not like to find us talking about her," said Honey.

"I agree, Honey-senpai," said Tamaki before the group at the table began to talk about random things.

* * *

The day when his daughter had left to go back to Japan was just a very sad day, but today only two weeks after she had left, he was shaken awake by Annie with a grim face as she handed him a phone. "Hello?"

"Ranka-san, Haruhi's in the hospital and the doctors are wanting medical history," said a frantic Tamaki.

"What happened?"

"She fainted and when I got to her, she was barely breathing. In the ambulance, they had to help her breath."  
"Is she still breathing on her own?"

"The hospital's running tests on her right now, but they have some special breathing tube that doesn't go through her vocal cords in throat when they last told me about her."

"Is she still out of it?"

"Yeah, but when they put in the special breathing tube, they gave her a sedative and used some numbing medicine to get it in. I don't anything else about it, but if the tube is left in, it will be the first time she woke up with one."

"She has never waken up with the breathing tube?"

"No. All the times before, the doctors determined that she was able to breath on her own with something to encourage her to breath."

"Ah. What are they wanting in regards to medical history?"

"Everything."

"There not much you probably don't know. She was very healthy before everything," said Ryouji as he began to list off all of the medical history.

* * *

He was so happy when a week ago he and Anne had went sightseeing in Paris, but today he was super happy. He was going home. Home to his daughter and where he belongs, although, he did admit that he wanted to see more of Paris before he had to leave. Once they boarded the plane, he took the medicine the doctors wanted him to take, and before the plane took off, he was asleep. He only woke a couple of times during the flight, and he woke for the last thirty minutes of the flight. Watching the plane land was the most interesting part since he had never seen it before.

Getting off the plane with Anne, Ryouji began to look around to try and find his daughter except he found the Ohtori boy. Ryouji felt the pit of his stomach drop. Kyoya, instead of his daughter, meant bad things. "I hope you two enjoyed your flight in," said Kyoya.

"Where is Tamaki?" Annie asked before Ryouji could ask anything about Haruhi.

"He is getting things for Haruhi," said Kyoya pushing up his glasses. "Earlier today, Haruhi ran into some trouble, and the guard that I have assigned to her was too far away to stop it from happening. She has several bruises, but nothing more than that. The doctor has ordered her to rest and not to do anything for the rest of today."

"Is she really okay?" Ryouji asked.

"She is. I was able to see her before Tamaki took her back home after the doctors had checked her over," said Kyoya.

"Can I see her?"

"Yes," said Kyoya before they went to go gather the luggage from the flight.

* * *

"You say you were surprised that Tamaki-kun and your daughter had entered a relationship?" Misuzui asked.

It had been a very nice day, and Ryouji had taken it to meet up with Misuzui while Haruhi was off at school. Once they had caught up on each others lives, Ryouji had began to talk about the changes in his daughter. Leading to what his friend said after he told how shock he was when he noticed that they were in a relationship. "Not necessary about the relationship, but how deep it already is. I hope those two haven't done anything funny at not," said Ryouji before taking a sip of his tea.

"Oh, they are that far along in their relationship that they could possible have done the birds and the bees kind of stuff," said Misuzui.

"Oh, they probably haven't done _that_. I probably should give my little girl a talking to about the birds and the bees sometime."

"Then what really surprised you about them?"

"I knew they were together, but not that affectionate," said Ryouji as he began to think about what he walked in on one time.

"Explain, Ranka," said Misuzui defaulting to the _genjina_.

"I walked in on them kissing...fairly deeply."

"And you weren't expecting that?"

"Every time, I had seen them before that time they were holding hands, curled up together, or hugging each other. Never did I see them kiss."

"And the kiss you saw was not what you would call a first kiss?"

"That is right Misuzui, but I found out why I hadn't seen them kiss."

"Do tell, Ranka."

"After they finished that kiss that I saw, Haruhi buried her face into his chest and then ran off with a red face. I was able to get out of the boy that they make sure that they are alone when they kiss. They even had a kiss back when they visited me in France," said Ryouji before taking a sip of his tea and then looking back at his friend. "So what have your daughter been up to?"

"Oh, Mei, she has..."

* * *

He was sitting down to have lunch with Tamaki at the guest mansion that he had been living at with Haruhi for awhile when the phone rang. He left Tamaki to continue cooking while he went to answered the phone. Once he answered the phone, he heard English in the background as he uttered the greeting and felt dread. Haruhi had taken time off from school because her doctors were having a hard time trying to get the rest of the poison in her system out and had refereed her to some doctors in Boston in the US. "Hello, would happen to be someone who knows Haruhi Fujioka?" Someone asked in heavily accented Japanese.

"I am her father. What do you want?" Ryoujii asked trying to keep the dread out of his voice.

"I'm with the hospital here in Boston that she was refereed to and would like to know if someone could come here to be with her," said the person.

"Why is that?"

"Please wait a moment," said the person before the sound of shuffling pages could be heard. "Ah...here it is. The test results about how much poison she had in her system that was sent to us and the test results that we did here have shown that she has had an increase in the poison."

"If there was increase, why did it happen?"

"She might haven gotten another dose of poison in Japan."

"However, that was yesterday. Today, she was brought by some who works at the place that she is staying at and she was having a hard time of getting enough breath."

"She is staying at the Suoh vacation residence in Boston, and from what I've been told, the poison was responsible for her breathing trouble when she had fainted," said Ryouji. "What is her current condition?"

"Ah, it says that she is being given supportive care for her breathing problems. Nothing too invasive, just a positive air pressure mask. When she was able to respond clearly, it says here that the doctors got her permission for them to use a catheter. The doctors have already started a treatment to get the poison out of her system, but they don't know what to say about her behavior. That is why they want someone that knows her to be by her side," said the person on the other end.

"Uh...sir," said Ryouji figure out that person he was talking to was probably a male. "I need to go talk to her boyfriend."

"Okay."

Ryouji laid the phone next to telephone and went to find Tamaki in the kitchen. "Tamaki-kun," he said as calmly as he could. "Haruhi needs you to be in Boston with her."

* * *

**Mwahaha, I'm being very evil since I don't know when I will finish the next part to this story because I'm still stuck in the opening scene of the chapter. I would have to blame all the one-shot ideals that have been popping up in my head instead of ideals for this fic.**


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